A Star Danced
by Bratanimus
Summary: “… but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born.” – William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing. RLNT, COMPLETE.
1. Rocket in the Sky

Remus Lupin Apparated into a black, rain-drenched alley and promptly slipped on a patch of something oily. His arms flailed wildly to maintain his balance, and there was a moment when he thought he might actually remain upright. But _splat_ he went on the wet, slimy ground, narrowly missing striking his head on a metal trash bin as he pitched backward. From his prone position he saw a rather large rat scurry past his left hand toward the other end of the dank alley. Directly across from him, a homeless person of indeterminate gender stirred beneath his or her makeshift bedclothes, which consisted of cardboard and ancient, foul blankets.

"Sirius Black, I will kill you," Remus murmured to the bleak sky as heavy raindrops battered his forehead, adding a bit of water torture to his sodden predicament. "Oh, yes, I will kill you. It shall be done. This time I really, really mean it."

The lump under the cardboard and blankets mumbled something incoherent and turned to face the wall.

Remus stood up as gracefully as he could, drew his wand, and Scourgified the slime from his woolen pants and tweed coat. Next he conjured an umbrella and performed a drying spell on himself beneath it. He turned toward the end of the alley and reached into his breast pocket for the scrawled message Sirius had left on the kitchen table at number twelve Grimmauld Place:

_R. – _

_No need to argue. I'm going mad here and at last I have a good excuse to escape, in other words, read: female(s). If you want to partake, or keep an eye on me – I don't care which, but you need to get out of this hell hole as much as I do and you know it, so stop being all blustery – then Apparate to the alley next to that pub in Dublin – you know, the one we went to over Christmas holiday our seventh year. There's a new club at the end of that alley, and I'm told the police, Muggle and otherwise, are fairly scarce thereabouts, so bugger all I'm going. I've left you some Muggle money to get in and to buy a few drinks, which I fully expect you to do as I will have had a two hour head start. You'll probably see me at the bar or on the dance floor. Now shut your cakehole and put on something non-tweedy._

_S._

Remus replaced the note and stared at the industrial behemoth in front of him. It was a ridiculously sprawling gray building, three stories tall and completely nondescript except for the insistent _thump-thump-thump_ of bass which vibrated its very walls. It resembled nothing so much as a huge warehouse. A tiny, purple neon sign indicated the entrance, and Remus sauntered toward it through the driving rain.

At half past twelve, there was a long line of people waiting to get in, and all of them seemed to be under the age of twenty-five. Many of the girls were dressed in the skimpiest, tightest clothing imaginable, complete with high heels and glossy, pouty lips. A few girls and most of the boys wore tight T-shirts and baggy pants and an air of indifference. Nearly all had neglected to bring an umbrella, as umbrellas would likely have clashed with the attire and undoubtedly would have ruined the intended attitude of disaffectedness; instead they clung to the wall as best they could, using each other's bodies as shelter. Remus towered over nearly everyone around him in his tweed and wool and graying hair, and suddenly he knew what Sirius had meant when he'd warned him (at the tender age of eighteen, no less) about never being the old bloke at the club.

He paid his money with a grim smile and went inside.

The music was loud, but it seemed to be coming mostly from the second and third floors. Here on the first floor it was relatively peaceful. A sign on the black painted wall told him that this floor was _AMBIENT BEATS/OXYGEN BAR/FORTUNES TOLD/MASSAGE (NON-SMOKING)_. Sirius wouldn't be here: too "crunchy," he'd say. The second floor was _DISCO/70s_. Remus doubted Sirius would be there, either, as he'd never been a fan of the disco scene. The third floor was _HOUSE/TRANCE/DANCE CAGES_.

Remus began climbing the stairs toward the third floor.

As soon as he reached the landing for the second floor, the noise of the disco was deafening. Bodies crushed into him and past him, and synthesized music seared through his brain like a chain saw. A disco ball hung from the ceiling and threw starlight onto all the patrons dancing on the parquet platform or lounging at the long bar. Remus quickly darted into the men's bathroom and slipped into a stall, where he drew his wand and performed a muffling charm on both ears to deaden some of the noise. He could still hear conversation, but the amplitude was reduced and most of the high and low frequencies were eliminated. With a sigh of relief, he stepped out of the bathroom … and into a tall woman in a red sequined evening gown, not unlike like one that Judy Garland might have worn in Las Vegas in the 1970s.

"Oh, pardon me," Remus muttered, stepping back toward the wall to make room for her to pass.

"Not at all," the woman beamed. She had a lovely Irish accent; but her voice was strangely throaty. Remus looked into her face and saw overly-lined lips, caked-on rouge and eye makeup, a huge, dark brown hairdo. False eyelashes. Strong jaw. Adam's apple.

She was a _he_.

"Care to ask me to dance, professor?" she smiled, sidling next to Remus near the men's room door and eyeing his tweed coat with friendly amusement.

"Er, I'm flattered," Remus stammered, " but I don't really dance."

"Tch. Pity," she smiled. Her eyes danced over his face flirtatiously.

Remus squirmed. He was backed against the wall now. "Sorry, wish I could help you, mate."

The drag queen fixed him with a look of fury.

"I mean, mademoiselle," he amended hastily. "Sorry, I don't get out much lately. My fault, really. Erm, may I say you look smashing?"

Her look melted into one of warmth, as if Remus had just said the most charming thing.

"Well, if you happen to change your mind …"

"Yes, thanks, I will," Remus said with relief. "I mean …" He swallowed. "I may not see you. I'm on my way to meet a friend."

"Lucky friend," she said with a wink as she allowed him to inch his way past her toward the stairs. In her generous smile, Remus could see every one of her dazzling white teeth. She fluffed her wig with one impeccably manicured, albeit large, hand. It must have taken this person three hours to get ready to go out. Remus suddenly felt grateful that he never felt the need to scrutinize his own appearance too closely.

"A pleasure meeting you, er – "

"Victoria."

"Right. Remus." He backed away and waved in what he was certain was a rather silly manner. Then he dashed up the steps.

"People come and go so quickly here," Victoria said with a pretty sigh.

The third floor was a mash of sweaty bodies. There was barely room to move, much less to locate one wayward wizard. It took Remus a solid ten minutes to make his way from the stairwell over to the bar situated along the side wall. Sirius was nowhere to be seen. Another ten minutes passed before he got the barman's attention. He asked for two glasses of the oldest whiskey they had, with a splash of water in each, and turned to battle the throng once more. Slowly he pushed his way through the crowd toward the tables arranged on a carpeted platform, ringside-style, around the large sunken wooden dance floor. The thump of the bass and drums from the large speakers dotting the room probably would have made his ears ring for two days if he hadn't protected his hearing. The swell of music drove the club's patrons to ever-heightened states of frenzied dance. Remus had to admit that the climaxing music, although formulaic, wasn't unpleasant; it was melodic and sweeping, intense and dynamic, designed to build and release in just the right increments. As he approached the tables, he noticed the dance cages, one at each corner of the dance floor. Inside each cage was a single, well-sculpted woman or man dressed in scanty, caveman-type fur clothing; large furry boots provided the most coverage of their nubile young bodies. They shimmied and shook and contorted, but no one seemed to pay them much attention. They were part of the scenery, much like the shifting colors of the flashing electric lights that shone and swung from the steel rafters.

Somehow Remus discovered an empty table near the dance floor. He found a chair that wasn't too sticky and sat facing the heaving crowd. In his stillness he became aware of the cigarette smoke in the air, and his eyes began to burn. Blinking rapidly, he took a slug of whiskey and silently cursed Sirius once more. What would the Order do if Sirius was found missing from Grimmauld Place? Truth be told, Remus was surprised Sirius hadn't tried to sneak out before now. He growled and took another swig. He would simply have to try to bribe or coerce the man into coming home before closing time. Then he shook his head: who was he kidding? He would probably be here all night. Well, someone had to keep Sirius out of trouble.

From his ringside seat above, his eyes scanned the mass of bodies on the dance floor. The crowd particularly seemed to love the song that was blaring, and they jumped up and down en masse, over and over again, creating one surging, frenetic tidal wave of sweat and pheromones. Remus hoped the floor was sturdy. As he searched the throng, his eyes slowly focused on two people near the center.

This couple was not bouncing like the rest of the crowd. In fact, they were swirling, creating space around them by the force of their spin. The woman sported a wide grin, and she held onto the man tightly as they circled round and round, faster and faster. It was mesmerizing, watching man morph into woman and back again as their faces appeared and disappeared from Remus's view during the whirl.

Remus couldn't take his eyes off the young woman. Through the blur, he discerned that she had a sweet face, but her arms rippled with the compact, taught muscle that only petite frames such as hers can develop. She had short, black hair tipped in fiery orange-yellow. He could almost swear it was giving off sparks as they swirled. The man was laughing without reserve, and his eyes were crinkled and looking warmly into the face of the woman. There was something about the shape of her the man's brow that reminded him of –

"Sirius!" Remus stood awkwardly as he shouted in vain; the music was too loud. He waved at the couple, but their eyes were only on each other. Finally he sat down again and slowly finished off his whiskey, staring bleakly at Sirius and his date. Then he reached for the other glass, which he had intended to give to Sirius, and took a swig from that one, too.

Remus knew from experience that this would be a long night.

* * *

Several songs later, Sirius and the young woman wiped sweat from their foreheads and necks as they began pushing their way through the crowd. Remus stood again and waved. Sirius caught his eye and waved back; then he said something into the woman's ear. She looked up, saw Remus, and wiggled her fingers at him, smiling broadly. Her smile was quite lovely, and Remus couldn't help grinning back at her. Sirius pointed toward the bar, then at Remus. Remus pointed at his glass of whiskey. Sirius nodded and detached himself from the woman, making his way back to the bar to replenish their drinks.

Between the alcohol and the heat inside the building Remus suddenly felt quite warm, so he removed his tweed coat and draped it over the back of his chair. He remained standing as the young woman approached. She was much smaller than him, but well-proportioned and lithe; and she carried herself as a much larger person might, with strength and determination, as if she were used to getting respect. She wore military-green pants, sturdy black boots, and a bright lilac tank top. A black velvet choker encircled her neck. Sweat beaded and glistened on her shoulders as she neared him, smiling. Remus smiled back, and she tripped on the carpet.

She caught her balance with a spectacular waving of arms. "Oh, well done, Tonks," she laughed, blushing. Finally she reached the table. Remus began to pull out a chair for her; but she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, standing on tiptoe. "Remus Lupin, in the flesh," she spoke into his ear.

"Er, um, yes," he replied, immediately flummoxed. She was very affectionate, this one. So as not to appear rude, he allowed one arm to wrap around her small waist. The heat from her cheek and neck warmed his, and he noticed a pleasant, nutmeggy scent in her hair. She squeezed him hard once before releasing him.

"Sirius has told me all about you, Remus Lupin. It's a pleasure to meet you." Tonks stood back and appraised him frankly, letting her eyes sweep over his face and body. Remus was suddenly sorry he had chosen to wear his favorite old shapeless green jumper, though he couldn't have said why. He noticed that Tonks's eyes were jet black, as black as her flame-tipped hair, but warm and friendly as she regarded him. She cocked her head and squinted one eye up at him, commenting, "Wiry thing, aren't you?"

He felt his brow contort. "I – ?"

She clapped a hand over her mouth. "Sorry, sorry, foot in mouth. A big problem when I've had a few. Sorry, love." There was something about the way she called him "love" that sounded exactly like Sirius.

Remus was determined to participate in this conversation, if only to keep the lady's foot out of her mouth. "Tonks, you said?" The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"Just Tonks," she smiled. "I could let you use my first name, but I'd have to kill you."

"You – ?"

Suddenly her bright face crumpled. "Oh, I'm bollocks at introductions. I'm embarrassing you and myself all in one fell swoop. Shall I begin again?"

"Well, that's hardly – "

She took a deep breath, offered her hand, and spoke with a grave face. "Wotcher, Remus?"

Suddenly Remus burst out laughing as he shook her hand properly. "Why don't we have a seat and pretend we've already got past the awkward introductions, shall we?"

Tonks offered a grateful smile and Remus returned it warmly. She sat in the seat Remus had already pulled out for her and smoothly produced a vodka tonic and another whiskey from underneath the table. She slid the whiskey to Remus.

"Cheers," she offered. "Sirius could be hours coming back from the bar."

So Tonks was a witch. He hadn't even seen her draw her wand. She was either very subtle or very talented – perhaps both.

"Thanks," Remus smiled, raising his glass. He figured he might as well enjoy a few drinks. He had a feeling Sirius was just getting started and had no intention of leaving anytime soon, and Remus didn't want him to Apparate drunk. He would probably have to stay here in Dublin with Sirius tonight and get him home somehow in the morning. Of course, if Sirius had plans to escort this young woman home, Remus would have to find sleeping arrangements on his own. _Well_, he thought, _it's been done before._

Remus watched Tonks sipping her drink thoughtfully. Her eyes roved the dance floor and her head bobbed in time with the music. She really did have a lovely face. Heart-shaped, with a delicate chin. Large, expressive eyes and straight, black eyebrows. High cheekbones; they reminded him of Sirius's. Flawless pale skin. Although she was not what anyone might call classically beautiful, she was striking in an ethereal sort of way. Leave it to Sirius to find not only a captivating young woman, but possibly the only witch in this Muggle club. He felt something shift inside him, and his heart fluttered inexplicably.

Suddenly Remus felt like flirting.

It had been a long time since he'd done anything close to flirtation. Would he make a magnificent fool of himself? On the other hand, why should he resist? The Marauder in him elbowed him to make a pass. He started with the obvious question. "So what do you do for a living, Just Tonks?"

She smiled, shooting a sidelong glance at him. "Well, Remus Lupin, I could tell you but I'd have to kill you." She snickered at her own recycled joke.

Remus raised an eyebrow and sipped some whiskey, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.

In the past, flirting in earnest was something he only allowed himself to do with Sirius's girlfriends, as there was no chance any woman would be lured away from the handsome scoundrel by a thin, bookish sidekick. It gave Remus a thrill, and it saved him from having to have The Werewolf Talk somewhere down the road. Sirius, in fact, condoned his teasing; after all, as Sirius had repeatedly been known to say, "The more beautiful a woman feels with the male sex in general, the more likely she'll be to succumb to my substantial charms." But it had been over twelve years since Remus had been in this position with one of Sirius's women. He hoped he wouldn't come across as a dirty old man. So far, however, Tonks didn't seem to mind.

"Lady of mystery, are we?" Remus lowered his chin and gazed up at her through his fringe.

Tonks's eyelashes fluttered a few times and she blushed and looked away. Had he already successfully knocked her off her plate? But then she chuckled and continued. "Not very. I'm finishing up Auror training."

This time both Remus's eyebrows went up.

"You may have heard that the Ministry is trying to restore relations between Selkies and humans," Tonks explained. "They've got me here in Ireland doing some work with female Selkies and their human male captors." She took a swig of her drink and went on, frowning. "It's tough when there are children involved, but the female Selkies have to be allowed the choice of staying on land or going back to sea. And the Ministry is trying to educate the male Selkies about the hazards of seducing human women; many of them do it in retaliation for the female Selkies who were abducted by human men."

"I never knew that," Remus said, impressed. He lifted his glass to her again, forgetting at once that he was supposed to be flirting. "This is important work you're doing."

"Oh, it sounds noble, but all I'm really doing is hunting the offenders down, human and Selkie, and turning them in at the Ministry office here in Dublin. I've got this assignment because I've had some trouble with Stealth and Tracking," she said with a blush. "But I _have_ come across a few female Selkie skins that no one else has managed to track down," she added proudly. "Let me tell you how wonderful it is to return a skin to its rightful owner. You should see the look on their faces …" Tonks's voice trailed off and she smiled, her eyes focused somewhere far away. "But then comes the choice of whether to stay or go back to sea. And if there are children …" Her brow furrowed and she looked down into her drink, tracing the lip of the glass with a finger.

From her story, the echo of a song Remus had heard somewhere niggled his brain, but he couldn't recall what it was, or who had sung it. A wave of sadness washed over him, and he wasn't entirely sure why. He needed to try to lighten the mood. He watched Tonks in her reverie for a moment before asking, "Is it true that the children of Selkies and humans have webbed fingers and toes?"

"Yes," she nodded, bringing her eyes back to Remus. "But often the family has the webs clipped at birth." She shuddered convulsively at the thought. "It's not true that the webs grow back, despite what you've heard." She gulped her drink and shuddered again.

Remus sipped his drink slowly, impressed by Tonks's empathy for these children, and for the Selkie mothers faced with the choice of leaving them. He decided he liked this woman.

"What about you?" Tonks asked brightly. "What do you do? Sirius didn't tell me."

Remus wasn't certain whether he should mention the Order; not all Aurors were convinced that Voldemort was trying to regain power. "Well, I've recently taught Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts."

Tonks smacked him hard on the shoulder. "No!" she shouted, grinning broadly.

Remus rubbed his shoulder; for such a small young woman she packed quite a wallop. "Yes, it's true." He didn't want to tell her the circumstances under which he'd been forced to leave the school.

"Now_ I'm _impressed. You must be pretty smart – and talented – "

But Remus didn't hear anything else she said, because at that moment he saw Sirius at the bar, drink in hand. And he was chatting up another woman.

Remus brought his startled gaze back to Tonks, feigning interest, but all the while he was trying to figure out what to do. Perhaps twelve years in Azkaban had completely removed all of Sirius's common sense. Here was a beautiful young woman, obviously taken with Sirius, and there was Sirius – Remus's eyes darted toward the bar again – leaning toward a beautiful, statuesque woman with dark brown skin and chestnut braids down to the middle of her back. He was letting her touch the tattoo on his neck and shrugging as he spoke, probably casually making up some story about a former career as a pirate or some such nonsense. Merlin, what was Remus to do?

" – don't you think?" Tonks asked.

"Hmm?" Remus floundered. "Oh, yes, quite."

"I knew you'd agree with me. But most people would rather – "

He tuned her out again while his mind raced. This was beyond anything Sirius had ever done in the past. The man had juggled girlfriends before, but never so blatantly in the same room. Remus felt his blood boiling at the gall of it. Now Sirius was whispering into the woman's ear, his hand on her waist, and she was laughing and nodding. The sodding bastard still had his charm, and his looks, albeit a bit rougher around the edges now. But most women undoubtedly would still find him attractive. Obviously, at least two in this club did.

"Say, what's taking Sirius – ?" Tonks muttered, craning her neck to look toward the bar.

"Tonks!" Remus blurted suddenly, cutting her off mid-sentence. As she turned back to face him, he stripped his green jumper off, revealing a gray V-necked T-shirt, and tossed the jumper on the table.

"What?" Tonks asked, puzzled.

He threw back the last of his whiskey. The old saying about desperate times and desperate measures echoed through Remus's alcohol-soaked brain.

"Let's dance." He took her hand and, without waiting for her to say yes, led her away from the bar toward the dance floor.

As he pushed his way through the crowd, he wondered when was the last time he had actually attempted to dance and whether it bore repeating now, even under these dire circumstances. But he was determined not to let Sirius's callous lasciviousness hurt this young woman, if he could help it. He would do everything in his power to show her a good time.

As it happened, Tonks was a marginally better dancer than he. She had a sort of clumsy style that, in a strange way, worked for her. Perhaps it was her smile that somehow made the gyrations of her body make more sense. Fortunately for both of them there wasn't much room for flailing, so they eventually they both gave up dancing properly and simply bounced up and down with the rest of the throng. They laughed at each other's attempts to add style and individuality to what was essentially just hopping; and somehow an unspoken contest ensued. Tonks started it by imitating the man dancing next to her, trying to mimic his awkward, halting movements as best she could. Remus applauded. Then he attempted to dance like the woman next to Tonks, which was a challenge as it involved a lot of shimmying of shoulders and bosoms. Tonks nearly toppled over with laughter, which made Remus laugh all the more. The imitations escalated until both were in stitches and having trouble breathing. Tonks leaned with one hand on Remus's shoulder and tried to catch her breath. At last she yelled something at Remus, which was nearly unintelligible over the noise and music. He cupped a hand behind his ear and mouthed, "What?"

Tonks stood on tiptoe and Remus slouched a bit so he could hear. She brought her lips to his ear and said, "Let me show you the only way I know how to dance. It keeps me from stepping on blokes' feet. Sirius taught me."

She took Remus's hands and placed them around her waist. Then she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him close. She squinted her eyes and muttered something … and suddenly they were levitating.

Remus laughed in surprise and Tonks grinned as they began to slowly spin. "Look into my eyes," she yelled, "so you won't get dizzy!" He was astonished that she hadn't had to use a wand.

The spiral gained momentum little by little, and Remus found he had to hold on tightly to Tonks to keep from flying away from her into the sweaty crowd of dancers. He smiled into her eyes, realizing that, indeed, keeping his gaze on hers kept him from becoming dizzy. The mad, synthesized music with its sweeping chord progression, driving bass, and sextuplets of descending arpeggios on alternating beats and off beats seemed to be intensifying at the same rate as their circles, and it was quite a heady feeling: it was as if their spin was orchestrating the music, or the music was directing the force of the spin. The female voice sang something about being a rocket in the sky, and somehow Remus found himself accepting the proclamation as readily as anyone else in the club. No one else seemed to notice that the pair's feet weren't touching the ground, and the oblivious crowd parted slightly to make room for their whirling.

"Tighter!" Tonks shouted with glee.

Remus had to admit it felt good to hold this woman close to him. For such a small thing, she felt solid in his arms, and her smile was completely generous and unguarded. Her eyes – he stopped himself from considering her eyes. It would do no good. She was here with Sirius, and that was that. But for now this dance was theirs. Remus clutched her snugly to him and she laughed as the speed of the spin increased even more. Remus whooped as he felt his feet begin to fly outward due to centrifugal force. Tonks, anticipating this, quickly wrapped her legs around his thighs and calves and increased the spin yet again, laughing and holding Remus tighter. It was an intimate position, to be certain, yet it felt perfectly comfortable and natural in this moment.

Just when Remus thought he couldn't bear to go any faster, Tonks slowly, slowly began to reduce the speed of their circles. At the same time, the music shifted into something moody and romantic, something for lovers to dance to. People began clearing off the floor as a few couples remained to slow dance together, arms entwined around waists, hands cupping necks, lips on cheeks, in every combination of color and gender. Their rotation at last slowed to a minimum, and Remus felt his toes graze the floor.

He kept his eyes on Tonks as he found his footing, and two things happened which caused his heart to leap inside his chest: Her hair suddenly turned bright pink. And she blushed furiously, smiling and looking at the floor.

She stepped away from Remus and, as if she were suddenly unsure what to do with them, thrust her hands into her pockets.

"Your hair – " Remus began, gesturing with a finger.

"What?" Her hands came out of the pockets and clutched at her hair. "What color is it?"

"It's pink."

"It's – it's – " She screwed up her face for a moment and then looked at Remus desperately. "Are you sure? Still pink?"

"Pink," he said again.

"Well," she mused, smoothing her spikes down with her hands as if she could cover the pinkness with the motion. She looked at Remus curiously, as if it were somehow his fault. "Well, then," was all she said. And she nodded, turned on her heel, and strode back to their table.

Remus followed. He glanced toward the bar and saw the chocolate-skinned woman pulling a willing Sirius down a dark hallway leading to the toilets. Remus shook his head and scowled.

"Something different?" Tonks offered brightly when they reached the table and pushed their finished drinks aside.

"Why mess with perfection?" Remus replied simply. His words were definitely a bit slurred now, but there was nothing to be done for it: he was here for the long haul.

Tonks smiled and produced another pair of drinks from underneath the table. As she slid the whiskey toward Remus, he noticed that her eyes were now a stormy blue. She quickly darted her eyes away and stared out into the crowd once more.

"Tonks."

She looked back at him shyly, a vulnerable expression on her face.

"Are you a Metamorphmagus?" Remus asked gently.

"Is it that obvious?" she retorted, swiping a hand through her sweaty locks.

"No," he assured her. "Well, until your hair turned pink, that is, it wasn't obvious at all."

She tilted her chin down and fixed him with a look.

"And I should point out that your eyes are now blue. But other than that – "

"Oh, brilliant," she sighed. "I thought this had stopped when I was seventeen …"

Somehow Remus felt that he shouldn't pry into whatever "this" was. But he wanted to reassure her that he didn't think less of her. Metamorphmagi often had trouble making friends because people tended not to trust them not to change their appearance and spy on them. It made her perfect Auror material, but Remus was certain he didn't need to point that out to her.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "Everyone has their little talents and quirks. Sometimes they're one and the same. Frankly, I'd give a lot to be able to control my appearance. I'd trade my dark little secrets with being a Metamorphmagus any day."

Tonks watched him carefully, her expression unreadable.

"Besides, I think pink hair suits you," he said genuinely. "You have the right complexion for it."

A smile slowly spread across her face. "You are a good man," she said quietly, looking away. She blushed again. "Wiry, but good."

Remus felt a burst of warmth spread through his chest. "See, I could make myself a little shorter for you if I had your talents."

Tonks laughed, and he realized now he was flirting for his own sake, not for Sirius's. He took a breath and went on.

"Or more muscular."

She smirked, darting a glance at him.

"Or give myself the famous good looks of the house of Black."

Tonks rolled her eyes. "They're overrated."

Remus again felt that thud inside his chest. What was happening to him? _Reality, Remus_, he reminded himself.

But his mouth started talking before his brain had a chance to stop it. "I thought you and Sirius – "

At last an unkempt Sirius sidled quietly up to the pair of them, tucking his unbuttoned shirt into his pants. "Well, time to go, folks. It's been a pleasure. Are you getting on? Perfect. Come on, now."

Remus knew something must have gone wrong, and quickly, with the statuesque woman. Sirius was practically picking up Remus and Tonks by their collars.

"We've just got our drinks," Tonks sputtered, holding onto hers.

"More at your flat, right, love?" he said, steering them away from the table.

"At her – are you mad?" Remus spat, glowering at Sirius.

"Well, you're not Apparating in this condition," Sirius pointed out, "and I know you won't let me, either, so we've got no choice. This is the plan, mate, best get used to it."

"Let me get this straight – "

"Walk and talk, walk and talk," Sirius said, pushing the other two ahead of him toward the stairwell. Remus whirled around to grab his jumper and coat. Sirius grabbed him by the T-shirt and pulled him along again.

Remus spoke into Sirius's ear so that Tonks wouldn't hear. "You've spent the last half hour chatting up some woman, doing Merlin knows what in that hallway, and you _still_ intend to go home with Tonks?"

"Not me, love. We."

"_WE?_"

"Yeah, come on. She's planned for it. Breakfast and everything."

"_What?_" Remus was dumbfounded.

"She offered, we're accepting, end of story. Now move."

Remus clattered down the stairwell, his brain reeling from the drink and from what Sirius seemed to be implying. Tonks seemed a sweet girl, but suddenly it all made sense: her immediate affection towards him, her appraisal of his body, their intimate spin on the dance floor. Tonks was a beautiful woman, but a ménages à trois with her and _Sirius_?

"Sirius, this is a very bad idea – " Remus said on the landing of the second floor. He caught the eye of Victoria, the drag queen, who waved at him from the bar. He smiled awkwardly as he was maneuvered by Sirius down the next set of steps. Perhaps it would have been safer to have stayed on the disco floor with Victoria after all.

"What's the bloody hurry?" Tonks asked over her shoulder.

"Boyfriend. Policeman. Exit now."

The three burst into the wet street and hurried around the building to a side street; fortunately for them it had stopped raining at last. Tonks conjured a coat for herself; and after ten minutes of fast walking, they reached a quaint neighborhood of narrow row houses lined up like books on a shelf. She approached the second house from the end and broke the protection spells that sealed the door to her building.

Once inside the common hallway, they went upstairs to another, smaller living space: Tonks's temporary flat. "Welcome to Auror Storage, as we trainees affectionately like to call it," she explained with a smirk.

The silence was disconcerting after the blare of the club. Remus drew his wand and reversed the muffling spell on his ears. Then he looked around. Although the flat was spartan, there was lovely dark wood trim on the doors and windows; and Tonks had livened up the place with splashes of colorful decor and flowers. A Wizard's Wireless sat on the window seat overlooking the narrow street.

Tonks was still holding her vodka and tonic from the club, although much of it had spilled onto her tank top in their haste to leave.

"Let me go change into something a little less … vodka-y," she muttered. And she excused herself to the small bedroom and shut the door.

So this was really happening. Remus stared at her closed bedroom door for a moment, feeling as if he were in some sort of alternate universe, one in which he was a sex god. To be sure, he'd indulged in fantasies of threesomes; but never, _never_ had they included Sirius. Actually, never had they included another man; in his mind, it was always Remus and two women. But fantasies were just that: the reality of actually going through with something like this would muddy whatever waters he'd be lucky enough to tread in. Would he be able to live with himself afterwards? Unlikely. Would he be able to look at Sirius the same way ever again? Definitely not. And would Tonks want to date Sirius – or him, for that matter – when the deed was finished? If she were the kind of woman to throw herself at two men after just meeting them … well, all moral judgment aside, he decided, no, probably not; he'd probably never see her again.

He glared at Sirius strolling casually about the room, picking up knickknacks to inspect them and putting them back in the wrong places. Finally Remus managed to murmur, "We can't do this."

"What? What else would you suggest?" Sirius said, flopping down with a huff on the lime green sofa and taking in the room from that position.

"This is normal for you, maybe," Remus sputtered, eyeing the bedroom door again, "but shouldn't you have asked me first?"

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Have you really become this rigid?"

"After twelve years of waiting, I'd have thought you would have wanted to be alone, not, not" – _share the first woman you get your mitts on_, he was thinking.

"Well, we had a couple of hours together before you arrived."

"A couple of hours!" Remus stared in disbelief. "You just met the woman."

"Wait, who?" Sirius looked puzzled. "No, _her_ boyfriend is a policeman, and he works in that club – which she didn't tell me until we were nearly in the thick of it. Believe me when I tell you it almost didn't deter me at all. But my face is still plastered up in all the Muggle police stations, according to Dumbledore, and I'd rather enjoy a nice evening here than play cops and robbers with some rube with a badge. Besides, narrow escapes are rather fun, don't you think? Gets the blood –"

"Tonks has a boyfriend?"

"No, Tonks doesn't have a boyfriend." Sirius slurred the statement slowly, as if speaking to an especially dimwitted child. "The _other_ woman has a boyfriend."

"The woman in the hallway."

"You're catching on."

"So what are we doing here again?"

"Spending the night, isn't it obvious?"

Remus was silent. "You are unbelievable. I'm leaving." He put on his coat and headed for the door.

Just then Tonks's bedroom door opened and she reappeared in her socks, wearing a pair of baggy, old jeans and looking very demure in a fuzzy black jumper. Remus paused to take in her lovely form, hardly daring to believe that her intentions toward him were as sensual as Sirius had suggested.

"Where are you off to?" she asked, brushing her hair and strolling past the microscopic bathroom toward the tiny kitchen.

"Three's a crowd," Remus said.

"What?" She dropped the brush on the kitchen counter and entered the living room again. "No, the more, the merrier. I insist. Besides, any friend of Sirius's, blah blah blah." She placed her hands on her hips and gazed expectantly at Remus.

He felt his cheeks flush. "Look, I'm flattered, Tonks, really I am. You're a beautiful, stunning woman." A corner of her mouth contorted into a tiny smile and she blushed. "But I prefer to limit my intimate encounters to one-on-one."

There was a full ten seconds of silence as he and Tonks stared at each other. She looked utterly perplexed.

After another moment Sirius shifted on the sofa, scratching his forehead with two fingers. "You – you – wait a minute." He held up both hands as he gathered a thought. "Hold on here." The thought was crystallizing. "You thought – you thought – you – " Suddenly he burst into hysterical laughter.

Had Remus missed something? "What's so bloody funny?" he managed.

Sirius's breath caught in hiccups. It went on for several minutes. Finally he took in a long, shuddering inhalation and sighed with glee. "I fear you two were not properly introduced. But I see you've met my little cousin, Nymphadora," he said cheerfully. His drunkenly slurred speech would have added comic effect to his words in any other situation.

"_Cousin?_" Remus gaped.

"It's _Tonks_, Sirius!" Tonks growled simultaneously.

"You're his cousin?" Remus asked, whirling back to face her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought Sirius told you. I thought you knew."

"I thought I told you, mate," Sirius agreed. "I left you a note."

"The note said _females_, Sirius."

"Nothing more specific?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing," Remus confirmed, pulling the note from his breast pocket and tossing it onto Sirius's chest. "I thought you were picking her up."

Tonks's jaw dropped and her brow furrowed. "Eww," she said flatly.

"Someone kill me now," said Remus in the same tone.

Another ten seconds of silence ensued while Sirius reread his own note, then he burst into howls of laughter again. And soon, when Tonks finally realized the full extent of what Remus had thought, Sirius's shrieks were joined by her giggling and she fell onto the sofa with him. Remus looked on, cheeks burning.

"My apologies, Tonks, for – "

Her high-pitched squeal of laughter cut him off. She stood up and hugged Remus tightly, then pulled him down onto the sofa between her and Sirius. "Take off your coat and stay awhile," she laughed, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I promise not to seduce you while you're not looking."

"Me, too," Sirius quipped gravely, raising a hand in solemn promise as he burst into sniggers once more.

"All right, Sirius, you've had your fun," Remus said, removing his jacket and draping it over the back of the sofa. "Can you not see how mortified I am?"

"That's what's so delightful, don't you know?" Sirius explained with a giggle.

"Sirius told me this was one of your 'endearing young charms,' Remus," said Tonks, poking his thigh with one socked foot.

"What, having a conscience?" He was trying to maintain the proper mixture of humiliation and offense, but found that his lips were curling into a smirk despite his best efforts.

"No, you're just so – so wonderfully sincere." Tonks smiled genuinely, letting Remus know that she _did_ find it endearing, not amusing or, worse, pathetic.

"But his mind's clearly in the gutter," Sirius pointed out. "Actually, I've got newfound respect for you, Remus. I never suspected."

"Brilliant. A sincere lecher. You're making me feel so much better," said Remus dryly.

Tonks leapt up and opened a little cabinet, pulling out some firewhiskey. "Nightcap, anyone?"

"Better not," Sirius deadpanned. "You never know where it might lead. Two randy boys …"

"Remind me to kill myself first thing tomorrow," Remus groaned, resting his head in his hand.

Sirius cackled. "Oh, it's been a long time since I've witnessed something Remus Lupin will never live down." He sighed, shaking his head with a grin. "I feel like a new man."

Remus cast him a sidelong glance. "Glad to be of service."

Tonks meanwhile flitted around the room lighting candles of different colors and sizes. She then extinguished the overhead lamp and tuned the Wizard's Wireless to a melodic, mellow broadcast. She poured three glasses and placed them on the low table in front of the sofa, then conjured a chair for herself. Facing the two men across the table, she raised her glass. "A toast to –"

" – to a lovely evening," Sirius inserted, "though not quite as satisfying as Remus here had hoped."

"Augh!" Remus yelled, slapping his own forehead.

"_That's_ what I was waiting for." And Sirius downed his drink. "It's so much fun ruffling your feathers."

"I'm surprised I've got any left."

Tonks laughed and raised her glass to Remus, then tossed back a swig and made a face. "Whew, I never get used to the burn of this stuff."

"Nymphadora – " Remus began.

"Tonks," she corrected, though with less vehemence than when she had set Sirius straight.

"Tonks." Remus swallowed and stared at the table. "Please let me apologize for thinking – thinking – "

"No worries," Tonks said at once. "I'm actually sort of flattered that you imagined I was capable of such, er, amorous athletics." She giggled again and took another sip of the fiery liquid. "Blokes don't usually look at me in quite that light."

Remus thought he saw her smile falter shyly for a split second. Then a full grin lit up her features once more; he was relieved to see no animosity there.

"Thank you for not thinking I'm a beast," he said. Tonks winked at him, and his heart stumbled. Suddenly he found himself smiling broadly and he looked quickly away.

Sirius had just finished his glass and now poured himself another. "Tonks was always a bit of a tomboy as a child. Say, cuz, did you ever actually go out with a boy?"

"I will not discuss my romantic endeavors with you, Sirius Black," Tonks said smoothly.

"Why not?"

"Two words: my mother."

"What?" Sirius sputtered. "I won't say anything."

"Hmm." She raised an eyebrow.

"Why did I have to miss your teenage years?" Sirius opined. "I could have – "

" – given her emotional scars for life," inserted Remus.

"You always look for the silver lining," Sirius shot back.

"It's my job."

"Historically," Sirius explained to Tonks, "Remus was always the pragmatist among us."

"What he's really saying is that I've got enough gloom and doom – "

" – to power a small planet!" Remus and Sirius finished together.

"Ah, memories," Sirius sighed dramatically.

Tonks watched the two men with a smile as she sipped her drink. But her eyes became moist for a moment and she murmured, "I'm sorry you missed my teenage years, too, Sirius."

Sirius met her gaze and nodded silently, his own eyes glistening. As Remus watched, the color of Tonks's eyes shifted again until they were as gray as Sirius's, though her hair remained pink. She seemed to be completely unaware of the change. Suddenly Remus did indeed feel like three was a crowd, so he excused himself to Tonks's small kitchen to make a late night snack for everyone. He shut the door and stood there by himself for a long moment, leaning against the counter and staring at the floor, arms folded loosely. Presently he sighed and set to work.

There wasn't much in the pantry, but he stalled for as long as he could to give Sirius and Tonks a little more time to talk. When at last he rejoined them with a plate of grilled cheese sandwiches, the pair were seated together, Sirius's arm resting on top of Tonks's on the back of the sofa. They were laughing.

"Ooo, thanks, Remus," Tonks cooed as she took a sandwich. Remus felt himself blushing.

"May I recommend water?" He levitated three glasses of it from the kitchen. He sat in the chair across from the sofa and slowly ate his sandwich while the other two munched and reminisced about their younger days together. He saw Tonks's horror and anger when Sirius told her the whole Peter Pettigrew story, culminating with their confrontation in the Shrieking Shack. And he observed how Sirius's face lit up as Tonks told him about things that had happened to her and in her family after he was sent to Azkaban, including her adventures as an Auror-in-training. Remus hadn't seen Sirius this happy in months, since he'd finally been reunited with his godson Harry.

And Remus was getting to know this lovely young woman vicariously through her humorous and dramatic tales. He remained as silent as he could, except for the times when one or the other would turn to him for dramatic emphasis or to ask a question. They both were slouched back on the arms of the sofa; Tonks had propped her feet up on Sirius's knees and peered at him from around the side of her legs, one arm tucked under a fuchsia throw pillow behind her head. He found himself staring at the smooth, pale skin of the inside of her forearm where the jumper had been pushed up. Something was shifting again inside him, though he tried to ignore it.

At last, as the hours grew late and the conversation dwindled and Tonks's eyes began to close for longer and longer stretches of time, Sirius sat up. "Come on, love," he whispered gently. "Nighty night."

Tonks smiled up at her older cousin. It was such a sweet, unguarded smile that Remus thought his heart might break then and there.

He stood and cleared the sandwiches and glasses from the living room to allow them some space for their goodnights. When he returned from the kitchen, he found that the coffee table was gone, the sofa had been magically extended, and a cot had been conjured next to the window. Bedding was already arranged on each.

"You get the sofa, Remus," Tonks said sleepily, turning off the Wizard's Wireless. "It's comfy. I've fallen asleep there more times than I care to admit." She shuffled toward the bedroom. "Oops, I guess I just _did_ admit that. Oh well. Night."

"Night," said Remus.

"I expect pancakes," Sirius called after her. Without turning, Tonks raised a hand in acknowledgement as she shut her bedroom door. "Her mum's a fantastic cook," he told Remus.

Remus extinguished the candles and the two men settled into their little beds. Sirius was asleep almost at once. Outlined by the streetlamp shining through the window, his side rose and fell rhythmically. It was almost like being back at school in the Gryffindor bedtower, listening to the snores of his mates; but now his friends were fewer in number, and just now he acutely felt the ache of missing James. And Lily. If only Remus didn't feel so old, so weary; so much had changed, been taken away from both him and Sirius. He sighed and rolled over onto his back.

Above him, Tonks had magically enchanted her ceiling with hundreds of tiny pinpricks of light.

Stars.

He smiled as he drifted into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

**_A/N: I'm still actively working on Friend or Foe, but I needed a break from the darkness of that story. Welcome to my first bit of Remus/Tonks fluff! Hope you have enjoyed it so far. I'm expecting this will be a shorter fic of about 5 chapters._**

_**Anyone who leaves a review gets the next dance with Remus and the music of your choice – salsa, swing, tango, the twist, etc. – the sky's the limit. You might even talk him into poplocking for you. But watch out for Salsa Remus; he's pretty cheeky. ;)**_


	2. Lion's Mane

When Remus awoke, that song he couldn't place last night was still lurking in a corner of his brain. What was it? A story – Tonks' story – about Selkies had reminded him of it. Someone was singing now, and he sat up to orient himself.

The kitchen door was open, and Tonks stood at the counter preparing breakfast. Her humming was pleasantly off-key, and he watched her as she disappeared from view and then reappeared with a bag of flour. Her humming was interrupted momentarily as he heard her whisper, "I can do this." Then the humming casually commenced again as she began measuring the flour into a large glass bowl. Next she reached for a carton of eggs and broke one on the edge of the bowl, cursing softly as the gooey mess dribbled through her fingers.

She wore a flowing turquoise and gold kimono that had a fierce dragon embroidered in black on the back. Her feet sported large, fuzzy green slippers that, strangely, squeaked when she walked. Her hair, now jet black again but without the orange tips, stuck up every which way, and there was flour on her cheek. It took Remus a few moments to realize he was staring at her.

He quietly turned toward the window and poked Sirius' back with his foot. "Because it's true," Sirius muttered in his sleep. Remus smirked and poked him again. "Love to," Sirius sighed, hugging his pillow.

Remus stood up slowly and stretched, trying to inhibit the squeaky vocalizations he always made when he did so. He turned and saw Tonks watching him. "Morning," he said softly, running a hand through his hair.

"Morning," she said, turning back to the bowl she was now stirring with a wooden spoon. "Sleep well?"

"Very."

"Told you," she smiled.

Remus grinned. He magically removed and folded the linens on which he had slept and surreptitiously performed a breath freshening charm on his mouth. Then he sauntered toward the kitchen in his sock feet.

"May I …?" He gestured toward her tiny bathroom.

"Help yourself," she called. "You may have to stand in the toilet to shut the door, though."

The small porcelain tub and the toilet and sink were pink, and the bathroom was filled with all the delicious and mysterious scents of a woman living alone. He couldn't help but linger there. While he was finishing up and washing his hands, he inspected his appearance in the mirror. The hair was a little mussed, but not too bad, he thought. As he leaned forward to examine his face, a voice from inside the mirror suddenly yelled at him, startling him so badly that he jumped.

"You look _FINE_, you silly girl! Now brush your teeth and go to work!"

He stared at the mirror and began to laugh. He laughed for a long while. When he entered the kitchen he was still chuckling softly.

"You didn't tell me you had such a cantankerous roommate," he quipped.

"Wha – ? Oh!" Tonks clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh, no. I meant to reverse that spell last night." Her face turned bright red, and she unconsciously ran her hands through her hair, leaving white, dusty flour interspersed with the black. It made her look older and, somehow, rather dignified. Remus smiled as she turned back to attend to stirring the pancake batter.

"Need some help?" he offered over her shoulder.

"No, no, I've got it," she replied in a voice that was perhaps a little higher-pitched than normal. "Just stand there and look pretty," she ordered, her pitch dropping again.

"Hmm," he reflected. He folded his arms as he leaned against the small kitchen table behind her, wondering exactly how pretty he could possibly look to her after a night on a sofa. He rubbed a hand across his face and tried to wipe the sleep from his eyes. As he watched Tonks working, he noticed that she wore white flannel pajama pants underneath her dragon kimono, and the pajamas had Christmas trees on them.

There was a comfortable silence during which Tonks continued her humming as she looked in her copy of _Mrs. Lemon's Easy Recipes Made Easier: Volume 2_. It was a witch's cookbook, but she was preparing things the Muggle way, for some reason. She glanced every so often at the bowl of pancake batter with a mildly worried expression on her face. Her humming became a little more strained as she reached in the cabinet for a large iron frying pan, which she placed on top of the stove. She checked the cookbook twice more before adding a pat of butter to the pan and turning on the gas burner. She had turned the heat of the flame rather high, Remus observed; but now she was engrossed in the cookbook again and did not notice.

"Here, I feel completely useless," he said as he approached the stove and subtly turned the heat down. "May I? I'm trying to learn how to cook a better breakfast." He held a hand out for the cookbook. "I'm told I need to put meat on my bones," he added, thinking of Molly Weasley's daily words of admonition.

"Remus, a real hostess would never allow her guest to help her cook." But she handed him the book anyhow as a look of frank relief washed over her features.

"No, you'd be helping me to learn something new," he insisted. "You wouldn't refuse me?"

There was that little quirk of a smile and the head tilt as she eyed him. "No, I suppose I couldn't. As hostess."

"You're very kind," he smiled. She blushed as she scratched her nose, leaving a bit of flour on it to match the powdery patch on her cheek.

"You've, ah – " Remus pointed at his own face to indicate the flour on hers.

"What?" Tonks grabbed her nose roughly. "Did it grow?"

"No, no," he said hastily. "Sorry, it's just a bit of flour."

"Oh," said Tonks, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand and blushing. "That's a relief."

"I didn't mean to startle you," he added.

"Of course not," she said absently, rubbing her nose and leaning into him to read the recipe from the book in his hand.

Her head was nearly on his shoulder. Remus watched her reading the recipe while she pinched the bridge of her nose as if she were trying to keep it from shifting into something less desirable, and before long he realized he was staring again. And inhaling her scent – sleepiness and nutmeg and something else musky, all rolled into one. Tonks looked up at him.

Caught in the act of ogling and feeling rather exposed, he swiftly gestured at the flour on her cheek. "And there's, ah – "

"More?"

"Just there." He pointed to her right cheek. Tonks wiped at it but, still having flour from her nose on the back of her hand, only managed to add more of the white stuff to her face. "It's – " He gestured on his own face and she wiped again, smearing the flour toward her jaw. "Well, actually … " Now she was starting to giggle. "Let me just – "

She nodded, trying to stifle her giggles with a closed mouth.

He grabbed a kitchen towel and wiped the flour from her cheek, brushing the last tiny bits away with the tips of his fingers and trying not to register how warm and soft her skin was under his hand, and how good it felt to have her looking straight at him. Tonks' smile shifted into something softer, almost contemplative, as she regarded him with limpid black … or, rather, violet … indigo? … now they were blue … blue-green eyes, like ocean waves under bright sunlight, constantly shimmering and shifting, but somehow always the ocean, always simply water, the thing without which a person could not survive, the thing in which a person could drown. Remus smiled at his own unexpected musings and wiped his hands on the towel. He felt himself flushing and suddenly found he had to look away toward the stove.

"The butter!" he exclaimed. While he was staring at Tonks, the butter had burned in the pan. He quickly turned the heat off. In a flash, Tonks drew her wand and performed a scouring charm, and the cast iron skillet split in two with a dreadful _clang_ on the stovetop.

There was a moment of stillness as the pair gazed, stunned, at the remains of the pan.

"**_WHAT – FRESH – HELL – IS THIS?_**" Sirius's voice, raspy and nasal with sleep, cut through the silence like the shriek of a mother dragon.

"Oops," Tonks breathed. "_Reparo_." The pan mended itself and she heaved a sigh, as if she had been holding her breath.

"Well done," said Remus, grinning. "Someone had to wake Sleeping Beauty up."

"Ha," said Tonks dryly.

"Such vicious noises from yon kitchen," Sirius muttered irritably. He staggered to his feet and turned on the Wizard's Wireless. Then he sauntered toward the miniscule bathroom, shooting an exaggerated glare at his persecutors on the way. As soon as he disappeared, Remus and Tonks burst into silent giggles. Tonks snorted, which made Remus laugh all the more.

Shortly thereafter Sirius returned to the living room and started fiddling with the broadcast until he found a Muggle crossover station with some acoustic guitar music on it; in the song, a breathy male voice sang quietly with a breathy female voice about love being a dream you enter. He started swaying to the music by himself, watching his reflection in the large window. Then he began a series of slow and deliberate movements and stretches, breathing in and out rather loudly as he did so. Remus knew that this was a habit his friend had developed in Azkaban in an attempt to keep his body limber and more or less in shape during the long years of waiting and wasting. Remus found it beautiful and sad to watch, so he turned away.

"I think my cousin likes the Muggle folk music," Tonks observed lightly, eyeing her cousin's measured actions in the living room.

"Oddly enough," remarked Remus with a raised eyebrow.

They looked at the cookbook together and, working side by side, managed to cook a rather large stack of pancakes without too much disaster. The first few pancakes were burned on one side; but then Remus suggested turning the heat down again and keeping a closer eye on the tiny bubbles at the edges of each pancake as they cooked (a trick he'd learned from Molly). Soon each pancake was turning a nice golden brown. By the time Sirius joined them in the kitchen, all the batter was finished and Remus was setting the table with plates and cutlery.

"This … looks … fantastic." The awe in Tonks' voice was unmistakable. He glanced up at her as he set down three glasses. She was staring at the plate of pancakes in the center of the table with something like shock on her face.

"I knew we'd be in for a treat," Sirius commented, "with Andromeda teaching you her culinary secrets all these years."

"Well, cuz, you'd be surprised at how much I've managed not to learn," Tonks announced, pouring pumpkin juice into the glasses. "I'm fairly certain the reason we have edible food this morning is because Remus decided to learn how to cook pancakes." She smiled at him and turned to put the kettle on the stove for tea.

"Teamwork," Remus replied. As he went to retrieve a pitcher of maple syrup from the counter, he nearly bumped into Tonks. They danced awkwardly from side to side, trying to get out of each other's way, until Remus finally placed both hands on her waist to hold her still and stepped around her. Her laugh was little more than a breathy exhalation, and he was gratified to see a flush appear on her cheeks. "Sorry," he smiled. "Big man, tiny kitchen, bad combination."

He returned to the table and placed the syrup in the center. Tonks had heated the pitcher up a little, and the scents emanating from the table now were mouthwatering. Suddenly he noticed Sirius eyeing him with one eyebrow raised. Remus glanced behind him: Tonks was engrossed with the tea preparations and humming again. He turned back to Sirius. "_What?_" he mouthed.

"_You're flirting_," Sirius mouthed back.

Remus' brow furrowed. "_Am not_," he said silently.

"_Are too_."

"_Am not_."

Sirius responded by miming a comically awkward Remus flipping pancakes, then a graceless Remus sidestepping Tonks, and he finished with a rather Errol Flynn-like eyebrow lift as he mimicked Remus saying something witty.

Remus gave Sirius the eyebrow raise for which he was apparently fishing, then smirked at his own knees as Tonks joined the two men at the table and served the tea.

Sirius peered at the pair sitting across from him for a moment, resting his lips on his fist and darting his eyes back and forth between the two. Tonks passed the plate of pancakes to Remus, who helped himself to three of them. Sirius piled five onto his plate, passed it back to Tonks, and remarked, "I like your eyes that color, Nymph."

"_Tonks_," she corrected, taking two large pancakes for herself. Then she did a double take. "What?"

But Sirius was already shoveling a large bite into his mouth and merely smiled innocently, tilting his head toward her with a shrug, as if he had somehow been proven right about something.

"What color are they?" she asked sharply, turning toward Remus.

"Erm, blue again," he replied.

She narrowed her eyes at Remus, and for some reason he felt obliged to apologize, although for what he had absolutely no idea. As he watched, her face took on a look of concentration, and her eyes shifted to indigo and then violet, but slowly they returned to blue-green, the colors now roiling like the sea during a thunderstorm.

"Still blue, love," Sirius observed, barely containing his laughter.

"Stop it," she said calmly, taking a bite of pancake.

"Stop what?"

She spoke with her mouth full. "I'm not seven years old, _cuz_."

"I have no doubt about that, _Nymph_," he said with a grin.

"It's _Tonks_, you prat!"

"What sort of tea is this?" Remus asked quickly. "It's delicious."

Tonks kept glowering at Sirius as she spat, "Persimmon. It's my dad's favorite."

"Where did you find it?"

"A Muggle shop." Still in a staring match with Sirius, Tonks gestured with her fork toward the tin on the counter, and a bit of pancake flew off the utensil onto the floor.

"Oh, your father knows about Muggle tea?"

Somehow Remus managed to get Tonks talking about her Muggle-born father, and eventually whatever irritation she was feeling toward Sirius passed. Remus shared some stories of his own about his experience growing up with a Muggle grandmother. Soon the group was laughing over stories about the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, or, as Tonks liked to call it, the Noble and Most Ancient House of Ack.

"When she was a little girl," Sirius explained, "there was one memorable dinner party during which she decided to enact the future death scenes of all of the Blacks. Regulus' was particularly entertaining – something about a poison dart in his nose, I think – what did you stick up your nose?"

"A bit of celery," said Tonks.

Remus laughed, and Sirius went on. "But the kicker was that every lengthy and tortured death had to end with the parting exclamation – "

"_ACK!_" Tonks and Sirius erupted into fits of laughter with hands round their own throats in mock death throes.

"Mum was none too pleased." Sirius wiped tears of mirth from his eyes.

"Brillliant," said Remus, grinning.

Tonks and Sirius sighed.

"And then there was the whole lion thing," Sirius remarked.

"What lion thing?" Remus asked.

"Well, when Tonks was a mere tot – what were you – three or four?"

"Can't remember."

"Anyhow, her Muggle grandparents took her to a circus. Which the Blacks eventually realized was a huge mistake, as our Tonks fell in love with the lions. The next day she woke up with a lion's mane on her head, which stayed there for two weeks – "

"It's true," she confirmed, blushing.

" – much to the chagrin of those who thought we all should be in Slytherin at Hogwarts. And, as I had already set a precedent for defecting to Gryffindor, everyone considered this a very bad sign."

"Not to mention a bad look," Tonks laughed. "But try to tell that to a three-year-old. Not that I could have fixed it – "

"It was adorable," Sirius grinned. "And since then, whenever she was taken with something or someone – "

"That doesn't happen anymore," Tonks said flatly, tucking into her last few bites of pancakes and not looking at anyone.

Sirius smiled. There was a long pause. He took a sip of tea and wiped his mouth on his napkin. "Of course not."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The goodbyes were long and comfortable, with hugs all around. When Tonks hugged Remus he felt himself wanting to prolong it a bit; so he deliberately pulled away first, touching her delicately on the elbow and thanking her for a lovely breakfast. Her eyes were now flickering the same brilliant blue-green, but now with a tinge of golden yellow now and then. He was utterly mesmerized, although she still didn't seem to be aware of the shifting whatsoever. He couldn't ask Sirius about the phenomenon: Tonks, after all, seemed rather embarrassed by it, and it wouldn't do to pry.

Especially if he hoped to see her again.

When the two men Apparated back home and were safely inside Grimmauld Place, Remus retired to the library where he located a few books on Metamorphmagi. The Blacks must have acquired these after the birth of Nymphadora, as they seemed rather new in comparison with many of the books on Dark magic that lined the shelves.

As he lounged on the brocade sofa and read, hour after hour, the shadows grew long and the light grew dim. When he felt his eyes starting to close, he pulled out his pocket watch. It was nearly six o'clock. Where had the day gone? He'd whiled away the hours researching, simply because he had met a girl who was a Metamorphmagus. But why?

And the answer jolted his heart.

He was hoping.

A knock on the library door startled him, and he stood up, still clutching a book in one hand. Dumbledore's silvery head peered around the door, and soon the rest of him followed, smiling.

"Ah, there you are, Remus," he said jovially. "I have an assignment for you, if you are interested."

"Always happy to help," replied Remus.

"Would you be willing to go to Dublin for a day or two?"

Remus dropped the book on his foot.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_**A/N: I've read lots of great scenes of Tonks trying to cook for Remus, but I haven't read one in which Sirius was present. Hopefully three wasn't a crowd! Things will get more interesting for our couple in the next chapter. Anyone who leaves a review gets a breakfast cooked by Remus. Cheeky Remus has cold leftover pizza in the living room, Romantic Remus has fruit and mimosas in bed, and Remus-Who-Has-No-Earthly-Idea-How-Shaggable-He-Is has – what else? – pancakes. ;)**_


	3. Bug Powder Dust

Some things never changed with time or practice, and this was one of them: Remus hated, simply hated, traveling by Floo.

While he waited for his brain to stop spinning, he amused himself by seeing how many different colors of ash he could cough out of his lungs. It really was the most undercover way to travel these days, he reminded himself, and he wouldn't land on his back in a slippery alley by Floo. But he couldn't help but grumble about it. He liked fresh air too much to enjoy shooting through the dingy fireplaces of strangers.

When he got his bearings, the first thing he became aware of was music. Extremely loud music. He wiped the dust from his eyes and saw Tonks. She was on the other side of her small living room, dancing with her back to him. When her body turned, he could see that her eyes were closed.

Remus called her name, but the music was blaring so loudly that she didn't hear him. Surely Moody had told her what time to expect him? He inhaled to call her name again, but somehow his voice caught in his throat. The music was hypnotic, a lazy and mysterious groove within an electronic framework; and over it all a male voice rapped something about not blowing his cover. Tonks wasn't hopping awkwardly, as she had done in the club two nights before. Now her body writhed unselfconsciously, arms snaking a design in the air as she moved in time to the melody and the slowly thumping techno beats. Her expression was as placid as a still lake, her lips parted slightly as she breathed. Her hair, violet today, was moist near her scalp, which meant that she must have been dancing for several minutes, at least. Her hands and fingers created little patterns above her head, as if she were writing an invisible name in the sky. In her private moment she was the most graceful creature Remus had ever seen. He felt his body become still, his hands suddenly frozen in the middle of beating the ashes from his coat.

Her eyes opened and she gasped. Remus smiled and waved, embarrassed that he hadn't been able to get her attention earlier and kicking himself for not trying harder. She smiled back and moved toward the Wireless, catching her thigh hard on the sofa as she crossed the room and limping the rest of the way. He chuckled. If he hadn't just seen her dancing so perfectly when she thought she was alone, he might begin to think she was the clumsiest person he'd ever met. But that just couldn't be the case.

"Wotcher, Remus?" she grinned, after turning the music off.

"Moody tells me you could use an assistant this morning." He wasn't to tell her that the request had come from Dumbledore. This secrecy could only mean one thing: that she was being considered for the Order. He felt a small smile creep up his cheeks.

Tonks approached him, still grinning, and socked him hard on the arm.

"Ow!" Remus exclaimed, rubbing his deltoid muscle. "What was that for?"

"For not telling me you're a Legilimens."

"I – what?"

"Moody said he was sending a Legilimens." She glared at him. "Were you reading my mind the whole time the other night?"

"I – _no!_ Of course not."

"Of course not." She smacked his other arm.

"Ow! What the – ?"

"What am I thinking?" She thumped him on the forehead.

"_Ouch!_ Oh, for Merlin's sake, I don't know. I don't go around reading people's minds for the hell of it."

Tonks peered at him and narrowed her eyes. She stared at him for a long while, and he stared back, breathing heavily. Once again, the colors in her eyes shifted before him, and he found himself looking into blue-green eyes, but now each of her large pupils was encircled by a golden yellow ring. "All right," she said at last. "I believe you."

Remus chuckled. "Oh, you believe me _now_, now that you've beaten the crap out of me?"

"You think that was a beating?"

"You know what I mean – "

"I wanted to see if you could see the ridiculous thought I was thinking – on _purpose_, mind you – while you were in a state of heightened emotion."

"Huh?"

"Moody was right. You really _do_ have control of it."

"I – of _course_ I do!"

"Perfect. Let's go."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As they walked toward the book store, Tonks filled Remus in on the profile of the person they were to visit this afternoon. The Benassi brothers had captured eight Selkies, but not Selkie women. They were Selkie children. Little girls, in fact. The brothers were attempting to bring the girls up as human in the hopes that, if their skins were ever found, the grown women would not want to return to sea. And they were banking on fetching a high price from buyers looking for mail-order Selkie brides, offering a money-back guarantee if not completely satisfied. The brothers were certain that their plan would work and no one would ever demand their money back because of a young wife running back to her watery home.

The brother they were visiting was Barnabas Benassi, and he ran the Benassi Brothers Book Shop, which the Aurors were fairly certain was a front for more covert operations. His brother, Billius Benassi, did the ledgers and mostly worked from home with his wife, Katarina, who had been strangely absent for the past two years. Barney was the brawn and Bill the brains, according to the information gleaned from the Auror team working on this case. The Aurors knew exactly where the children were hidden – watched over by Katarina in an abandoned schoolhouse on a remote property in the country south of Dublin. But the skins they had not been able to find. They knew the pelts had to be nearby, as the children couldn't survive if they were too far away, or destroyed. And without the skins, the Aurors could not liberate the children.

"And this is where you come in," explained Tonks. "You've got to pry into Barney's brain and find those pelts."

Remus couldn't resist teasing her. "Do you trust me?"

She smirked and kept walking. "I trust you."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barnabas Benassi had long, black, wavy hair and a heavy brow. His piercing blue eyes were quite striking, and he might have been handsome once; but now his skin was weathered by the sun, from years of hard work on board ships at sea. He was the one who had actually managed to capture the children, although presumably it was his brother Billius' plan that kept them from being detected by his shipmates or the Selkie parents underwater. Once the Aurors arrested the Benassi family, they intended to find out exactly how they had managed it.

Remus leaned over the counter, trying his best to make eye contact with Benassi, but the fellow had the worst people skills he had ever seen: there was no eye contact whatsoever. Remus had tried playing the dumb customer looking for a book he claimed he couldn't remember the title of, even trying to enact certain scenes of the plot to get the man to look at him. He figured _Les Misérables_ would be pretty well known to a book store owner, but this fellow was either incredibly dense or very, very suspicious of him. He was aware of Tonks stalking the rows of books a few feet away, and he figured she must think very little of him as a Legilimens right now.

But thinking of Tonks, he was reminded of the moment in her kitchen when they had made eye contact and he had watched her hypnotically shifting eyes. It seemed a cheap tactic; but hell, if it had worked once …

"Er, sorry," Remus said. "You've just got, ah …"

He gestured at his own face, trying to indicate that Benassi had a smudge on his.

"Wha – ?" Finally, the man looked Remus in the eye as he tried to wipe the invisible smudge from his cheek.

While Remus kept him occupied with his imaginary dirt, he searched the man's thoughts and found the pelts. They were in the attic of his great aunt Mabel, who lived in a small town outside of Dublin. Once he was certain he had the exact location, he pointed at Benassi's cheek and said, "Ah, it's gone now." He pulled out his pocket watch. "And would you look at the time? I've got to be off. Thanks very much."

And he strode out of the store. Tonks followed a few minutes later, meeting him three streets away at a little coffee shop where he had two mugs of cocoa waiting for them.

"Well?" she asked breathlessly.

"Great Aunt Mabel's attic," he murmured with a smile. "Number three Dónal Street. In a little town called Moll Dubh, near Enniskerry."

Tonks threw her arms around his neck, nearly knocking him out of his chair. She gave a squeal that nearly deafened him and planted a hard kiss on his cheek. His arms were around her waist before he realized it, and she pulled back, breathing hard and smiling happily.

"You're good," she said with feeling.

He felt himself blush from his toes to his crown.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few hours later, Tonks and Remus arrived at Great Aunt Mabel's front door wearing exterminators' robes and satchels and carrying canisters of Bugger-All Powder strapped to their backs. The little white-haired witch who answered the door was practically half Remus' size and rather confused-looking. Her watery eyes had once been brown but now had the bluish tint that sometimes appears in the elderly. Remus felt a little badly about having to deceive her; but, after all, her own nephews had already lied to her at least once. She had no idea what she was hiding in her attic amongst the gloves and old hats and photo albums. He let Tonks do the talking and was impressed by how easily she managed to get into the woman's good graces.

"Well, I had no earthly idea!" Mabel exclaimed, opening the door and stepping back to allow them inside.

"Yes, ma'am, woodlouse infestations of entire neighborhoods can happen very quickly," Tonks said, wide-eyed. "We'd just be a few minutes. We'll have to treat all the floors, including the attic. You wouldn't want to get out of bed and fall through the floor into the bath, would you?"

"Oh, no!" she said emphatically.

Tonks smiled. "We'll be done in a jiffy."

"Er – "

"Yes?'

The little lady wrung her handkerchief between her hands. "How much will it cost?"

Remus spoke quickly. "No charge. The town council mandated it. Preventive measures, you know."

"Oh, well, in that case …"

Remus and Tonks worked quickly, performing a cursory spray of powder everywhere there was wood. When they entered the attic, they were overwhelmed by the amount of stuff the woman had accumulated in her long lifetime. There was barely room to walk through the rows of hat boxes, books, and trunks piled high. Remus had started opening a wooden chest balanced perilously on top of an old aquarium when Tonks' voice interrupted him.

"_Accio_ Selkie skins." At once a small trunk in the corner opened up, and eight pelts hurled themselves at her. She caught them awkwardly, managing to drop only one because of the wand in her right hand. She smiled, satisfied. "Sometimes the obvious spell is the best one. Moody taught me that."

"Well done," smiled Remus. Tonks removed the satchel slung around her shoulder and he did the same, each stashing half the skins inside and magically reducing their size so as not to attract attention during their departure from the house. "You're quite the Auror, aren't you?"

Tonks' cheeks blushed bright red, and her hair began to turn pink, the color wicking upward from the roots. His eyes followed the creeping color with fascination. Tonks groaned when she noticed what he was looking at.

"No, don't tell me," she growled, clutching at her locks. "This is not helpful."

"It's all right, she probably won't notice," said Remus with a grin. "Pink, purple, same difference when you're a hundred years old."

"Nice of you to say," Tonks murmured, "but it's not Mabel I'm worried about."

As she quickly turned to leave the attic, her canister of woodlouse powder hit a metal coat rack with a loud clang, and the hose sprayed its dust directly into Remus' face. He began coughing violently.

"Oh, no!" Tonks removed the canister from her shoulders at once and drew her wand again. "Bloody hell, you can't take me anywhere." She roughly sat Remus on a steamer trunk, grabbed his face with her left hand, and rapidly muttered a spell with her wand pointed at Remus' mouth. Before he could even protest, white bug powder dust was drifting out between his lips and floating through the air in a cloud. It hung there in the rafters of the attic, suspended above them like the dense outer edge of a galaxy.

For some reason, Remus' heart was pounding, and it had nothing to do with the terrific coughing fit he had just endured. It had everything to do with Tonks' strong fingers holding his chin still, and the determined look in her eyes as she held her wand firmly pointed into his face. Her stance was wide and her jaw set as she continued to draw out the last specks of powder from his lungs. She licked her lips in concentration, her eyes staring at his mouth. Her eyes were now flecked with brown. Those strange blue-green eyes – _the ocean during a storm_ – with gold around the pupils – _the sun, eclipsed_ – now had tiny freckles of brown in them, more in the left iris than the right. They looked familiar …

Now her eyes darted back up to his and she relaxed her wand arm, dropping her other hand from his face to his shoulder. "Are you all right?" Her voice was quiet, her brow creased with worry.

Remus started to speak, but nothing came out. He cleared his throat. "Yes, fine now, thanks."

Her face was still rather close to his and they regarded each other for a moment. "I'm sorry about that. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm hopelessly clumsy – "

"Not to worry," he said quickly, feeling the need to fill the space between them with words, any words. "As long as you're always that quick with spells for recovery."

"I can assure you that I've learned them all," Tonks said ruefully.

"Well, then," he said simply, "I'm in good hands."

Remus felt her fingers squeeze his shoulder softly, almost reflexively. He stood up, his hair brushing the cloud of dust above him. "We should go back downstairs. She'll start to – "

"Yes, right. We should."

As they left the attic, the dust slowly settled down onto the floorboards of the attic. If there were any woodlice inside, they would be gone by nightfall.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_**A/N: This was originally going to be part of a much longer chapter, but I decided to divide it up to make it a bit less unwieldy. There's more Selkie business coming up in the next chapter, and of course more Remus/Tonks attraction. When will Remus figure out what's going on with Tonks' eyes?**_

_**All reviewers get to take Remus' breath away with the spell of your choosing. ;)**_


	4. Pink Moon

Remus learned one thing during the long day working with Tonks: when her team of Aurors struck, they struck fast, and they struck well. As soon as Remus and Tonks reported that they had the Selkie skins, a group of Aurors and Aurors-in-training went to the country schoolhouse and gathered the children, arresting Katarina Benassi as they did so. Another team simultaneously arrested the Benassi brothers at a Dublin pub. Remus took comfort in the Aurors' swiftness and teamwork. During the first Voldemort war, Aurors often had been forced to work quickly out of desperation, which occasionally led to sloppiness. He was glad this group, and Tonks, in particular, were able to keep calm during assignments. Hopefully that skill would carry over into situations of heightened emotion and higher stakes. Remus would be glad to report to Dumbledore a job well done when he returned.

Now he and Tonks had arrived at the Dublin Ministry of Magic headquarters, where the children were being "debriefed" about what had happened to them. Because being separated from their skins causes amnesia in Selkies, memory restoration spells were used to assist the children's recollection. Once they saw their memories, most of the girls were old enough to remember the trauma of having been taken from their parents. Several of them held their pelts in their laps in shock. Some cried. A few begged to be taken to the sea immediately, where, upon contact with the salty water, their pelts would magically meld to their bodies and transform them back to the beings they had been before.

The next day and a half would be important, not only for the Ministry's intelligence, but for the children's state of mind before being returned to the sea and their parents. Each Auror would choose a girl to interview. Histories needed to be taken, and evidence gathered. Paperwork had to be filled out. And counseling had to be completed. Tonks rolled her eyes at Remus when she informed him of this duty. "How can any of us make these little girls feel any better in a day and a half? It may take _years_ to get over what's happened to them."

Remus had to agree. He watched Tonks as her gaze roved over the group of eight children, choosing which one she would interview and counsel. It was a pathetic sight; most of the girls were now crying in earnest, or talking with each other and trying to make sense of their fate. After a moment, Tonks strode over to a little brown-haired girl who sat alone at the edge of the group. The girl's jaw was set, her blue eyes calm and staring straight ahead. Her fingers gripped her pelt so hard that her knuckles were white. She couldn't have been more than seven years old.

Tonks sat next to the girl on the wooden bench. She looked at what the girl was staring at on the opposite wall. Posted there were new and revised decrees, notices of workers' rights, and, of course, photographs of wanted criminals: the Benassi brothers were there, and Sirius would no doubt find it interesting that he was tacked up in three places. Tonks started by ridiculing the pictures of the criminals in the photographs on the wall. The girl nodded or shrugged in response to Tonks' jokes. When the girl finally looked up at her, Tonks introduced herself and asked the girl's name.

"Mary," the girl replied softly in an Irish lilt.

"That's pretty," Tonks smiled. "What was your name before?"

The girl looked down at her pelt and was silent.

Tonks regarded Mary for a few moments, then glanced quickly at Remus and looked away. Her look told him that this was going to be tough.

* * *

Later that evening, Remus waited for Tonks in the corner booth of a little Muggle pub a few streets away from Ministry headquarters. She had sent him on his way while she and the other Aurors finished talking with the children, eating dinner with them, and settling them into their quarters for the night. More interviews would take place all day tomorrow, and finally the children would be escorted back to the sea tomorrow evening. 

As he nursed a beer, Remus thought about his new – what should he call her? – acquaintance? Colleague? Friend? He wanted to imagine her as something more, even though every rational part of him was ready to put a stop to that. But he couldn't seem to help himself. Everything about her enticed him: her humor, her humility, her strength, her talents … and yes, her looks. He hated to admit it, but he had spent a fair bit of the afternoon in the Ministry memorizing the profile of her nose.

He felt a rather pleasant but unwanted stirring within him, so he looked around the pub to try to distract himself. There sat The Usual Suspects, as Sirius would call them: old blokes who had never married, or whose wives had died or gotten sick of their shenanigans. The men elbowed each other at the bar and regaled one another with the same stories night after night. Would he and Sirius end up like that one day? Remus felt a heaviness in his chest as he realized that it wouldn't be out of the question. Even if his innocence were proven, Sirius wouldn't likely settle down with a woman. And Remus … well, he had decided long ago that he couldn't.

But then he thought of the dimple that appeared in Tonks' right cheek when she smiled. It made him feel better, so he allowed his thoughts to wander over her other features. He felt the curve of a smile beginning on his own face when he considered her delicately pointing chin; her straight, black eyebrows; the high cheekbones; her small, voluptuous mouth; the dark eyes that never seemed to stay dark when he was around …

The tinkle of the bell over the front door brought him out of his reverie, and in strolled Tonks, having changed clothes and looking rather striking indeed in low-cut, boyish blue jeans and cowboy boots, a burgundy velvet jacket, and an old green T-shirt that had tattered lace stitched along the plunging neckline. Remus told himself not to ogle and forced his gaze up to her face. As she crossed the room, her eyes once again shifted from black to blue, as if her eye color were an outfit she chose to wear around him. He stood as she approached and fought the impulse to catch her elbow and kiss her cheek in greeting.

"Wotcher, Remus?" she smiled as she plunked down into the seat across from him. He sat down with her and noticed that she looked tired. "Did you already eat?"

"Back at my room." The Order had rented a small room for him a short distance from Tonks' flat; he wasn't particularly looking forward to saying there tonight.

"We ate at the Ministry," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I could use one of those, though."

Remus signaled the barman to bring two more beers. "How did it go?"

Tonks sighed and cupped her face in her hands, elbows on the table. She roughly rubbed her face for a moment, then ran her hands through her fuchsia hair and flopped back against the seat again.

"It went that well?" asked Remus.

"Oh, it went fine. I got the information I needed. That's not the point."

The barman set the beers down with a _thunk_. Tonks took a long sip and wiped her mouth thoughtfully with the back of her hand. Remus took a swig of his and waited for her to continue. She leaned her head against the back of the booth and regarded Remus for a moment.

"It's always the ones who seem like they've got it together who are the hardest to crack."

Remus' heart thumped inside his chest. This was exactly like something Sirius would say – _had_ said, in fact, on many occasions – about him. But he reminded himself that Tonks was talking about the little girl, the Selkie.

"She's very mature for her age, Mary is – or Mairead, that's her Selkie name. But who is she now? Now that she's spent two years as a human? And … ah, hell …"

Tonks sighed and traced little designs into the frost on her beer glass, creating amber curlicues all along one side. She spoke quietly.

"That's the only thing I don't like about this job. There's so much you have to leave undone. She's not all right. She won't be all right tomorrow night when we take her home." She crossed her arms and her eyes focused far away as she turned her gaze toward the darkened window for a moment. Remus watched her blink slowly. Three blinks. Then her gaze returned to Remus and she spoke briskly. "But she's going home to her parents, and I suppose that's the best we could do for her anyhow."

Remus nodded in understanding, somehow feeling that no comment was necessary. Their eyes remained locked for several seconds, and for some reason the silence didn't seem awkward. Remus dropped his gaze first and reached for his beer, wondering if perhaps a change of subject was in order.

"So I stumbled upon you dancing in your living room," he smiled.

"Oh, that, yeah," Tonks blushed. "I was hoping you'd forget that little incident."

"Why?"

"It's – oh, it's nothing." Her cheeks were flushed.

"What?" Suddenly Remus was intrigued.

"It's really nothing."

"No, you have to tell me now."

"I promise you you'd rather not know."

"I promise you I'll die of curiosity if you don't tell me."

"I assure you it's not very interesting."

"And I assure you that your blushing face tells me otherwise."

Tonks inhaled to negate him again, but instead ended up grinning. Remus smiled back, knowing that he'd won. He innocently took a sip of his beer, peering up at her over the rim of the glass.

"Moody made me do it."

Remus sputtered mid-swallow and coughed. "_Alastor_ Moody?"

"The same."

He coughed again. When he gathered himself, he spoke in a hush. "Mad Eye Moody asked you to –"

"Dance in my living room, yes."

Remus was utterly flummoxed. Now Tonks was grinning, although her blush hadn't entirely faded.

"May I ask why?" he finally managed.

Tonks raised her eyebrows and hissed an inhalation as she gazed into her drink. "I'm trigger happy."

He wasn't following. "You're what?"

"I'm a little too quick on the uptake, too much of a cowboy, as Moody says."

"Translate."

Tonks sighed. "Look, I get kind of wired before my assignments. There have been a few … instances … when I've hurled a spell when it wasn't necessary. Moody calls me 'Quick-Draw,' and as you can well imagine, I'm not proud of it."

"And the dancing helps by … "

"Blowing off steam. He recommended another remedy, too, although – " She stopped speaking abruptly and blushed again, a deeper crimson this time.

"Do I want to know what this other remedy is?" Remus leaned forward with his elbows on the table, grinning from ear to ear as she squirmed.

Tonks cleared her throat. "Just imagine the very last thing you'd want to discuss with Alastor Moody and that would be it."

"For blowing off steam," Remus clarified.

Now Tonks leaned forward on her elbows. "To avoid impulsivity on the mission."

_Pre-mission missionary position_, Remus thought, enjoying the images that were conjured at the thought of Tonks needing help in that regard. But what he said was, "Ah."

"And since option number two was, er, not an option, I opted for option number one."

"Dancing."

"You're swift."

They smiled at each other and Remus reveled in the opportunity to study her eyes again. What was it about them? Blue-green, of course, as they always seemed to be; but now the pupils were encircled with a wreath of brown, and the brown was ringed with a sunburst of gold, and then there were the little flecks, the freckles of brown in each iris, more in the left than the right. Realization began to settle on him like a warm, damp ocean wind and he blinked several times, feeling his smile falter.

After quickly downing his beer he stood up. "Excuse me."

He felt Tonks' eyes on him as he made his way as casually as possible to the men's toilets. Once inside he practically ran to the mirror where he leaned in as close as he could and looked at his eyes. The blue-green, the brown, the gold – even the freckles. Her eyes were mimicking _his_ eyes. He stood back and stared at himself. Then he leaned forward again, both hands on the mirror, staring into his own eyes, just to make sure he wasn't deluding himself. No, there was no doubt about it. She was involuntarily morphing to match his eyes. And what had Sirius said? Whenever Tonks was taken with someone …

His heart began to pound furiously. He felt a sweat break out on his lower back. He paced. He talked to himself. He approached the mirror again and gawked at his eyes once more for good measure. There was no denying it; her eyes were a perfect imitation of his. He rumpled his hair. He straightened his jumper. He looked in the mirror and fixed his hair. He stood back and stared at himself.

"Settle down, you idiot," he ordered his reflection, pointing a finger for emphasis.

But his hands went to his hair again as he tried to get the fringe out of his eyes. Merlin, was it true? Could she really fancy him? She had only just met him, for heaven's sake, and he wasn't exactly handsome, had never been handsome. His hair sported streaks of gray; his face wore more than a few early wrinkles; he was, as she had pointed out, wiry – too thin, he thought; and then there were the scars, right there on his face and on the backs of his hands, in plain sight, not to mention the hundreds under his clothes. He wondered for the first time if she knew he was a werewolf. His departure from Hogwarts hadn't been a secret, and he would be surprised if she didn't know, hadn't known the first night they met. So if she knew … then what?

_Just tell her you're tired and you need to turn in_, he thought. _Long day tomorrow_. He steeled himself as he left the bathroom. As he approached her, he noticed that she looked different. But this time it wasn't because of accidental morphing. It was his own eyes taking her in, registering her beauty in a new way. She fancied him. She _fancied_ him. And now her entire being embodied a new possibility to him. Did he dare imagine?

Tonks stood up, rooting in her pocket for some Muggle money. "I'm really tired, Remus. Walk me home?"

"I'd be honored," he said, heart lurching. Of course he would walk her home; it was after eleven o'clock. Certainly she could take care of herself if she ran into trouble, but not without magic; and it wouldn't do to have an Auror-in-training performing magic among Muggles. Best to keep her record clean. He would say goodbye when they reached her downstairs door and walk back to his tiny rented room. Refusing Tonks' offer of cash, he left money on the table for the three beers and followed her out the door.

They walked slowly across the seven blocks to get to her place, talking amiably along the way. The eye of the silver waning moon cast their shadows in front of them as they walked, although the darkness was obliterated now and then by the occasional streetlamp. Remus watched the silver toe tips of Tonks' pale leather cowboy boots as they glinted with each forward stride. Her hands were thrust deeply into the pockets of her jeans, and now he could see a bit of her hip on the side nearest him. The skin there was pale, and smooth-looking. He looked away and tried not to think about that; but, of course, now that he had seen it, that was all he could think about.

At last they reached her door. Her head tilted as she looked up at him. "Nightcap?"

"Okay," he said, like an ignoramus. _One drink_, he thought. _Then go back to your room_.

He resisted the impulse to lean into her and smell her hair as she broke the protections and let them inside.

Strangely, it felt like coming home, even though the flat wasn't even Tonks' permanent place. The scents – her perfume, the soap in her bathtub, the kitchen, her dirty laundry – seemed familiar to him after only one visit. At her request, he poured them each a firewhiskey while she found some low-key folk music on the Wireless. She pulled off her cowboy boots and stretched out on the sofa as he handed her a glass. With a flick of her wand, she conjured an identical sofa directly across from the small coffee table. He followed suit, kicking off his shoes and stretching out facing her. He wondered how it was possible that he felt so comfortable with her so quickly.

As Tonks nestled, reclining, into the sofa with her knees drawn up, he noticed a scar beneath her chin. "What happened there?" he asked, pointing to his own chin.

"What, this?" Tonks fingered the scar as if she had forgotten it was there. "Normal cruelty of children."

"I'm sorry, that was nosy of me," Remus said quickly. "Please ignore me."

"No, it's fine," she smiled. "It's a good story."

Remus smiled, marveling at how easy it was for her to be open with him.

"When I got to Hogwarts, I was scared out of my mind. I was afraid no one would like me. Or that everyone would mistrust me. I didn't have very consistent control of my morphing then, so everyone knew what I was." She took a long swig of the firewhiskey and made a face. She shifted onto her side to face Remus. "And one day during my second year, a group of older Slytherins decided to sock me in the face a few times. To see if I could morph away the damage."

"Oh, no," Remus said, horrified.

"Yes, 'oh, no' for them. I took it for a minute or so. Poor, poor me, whimper, whimper." Tonks chuckled. "But soon I got mad, and I morphed my face and hair into Medusa and turned them all to stone."

Remus stared at her. "You …"

"Turned them all to stone, yes."

"And did you – "

"Get detention? Very much so. But they turned back. After a few days. I mean, I'm not really Medusa, am I?"

Remus began to snicker.

"But the moral of the story is that I didn't let anyone intimidate me about my morphing ever again."

"I can't imagine that anyone would _try_ to after that," Remus commented.

Tonks glanced at the ceiling in thought. "Well, no …"

"Can you still …?"

"Do the Medusa thing?" Tonks shook her head. "I wish I could. It'd be a great weapon, wouldn't it? No, I think it was one of those prepubescent powers that is borne of extreme emotion and excessive hormones."

Remus began to laugh. Tonks darted her eyes at him and began to chuckle with him. They laughed easily for a while.

"Anyway, it's not that I'm not _sensitive_ about it," she went on. He thought of her embarrassment the first time she had accidentally morphed in the club and nodded. "But I won't be made to feel like a freak. Not anymore."

"That seems healthy," he said cautiously. They were dancing around a subject about which he had some rather strong feelings himself, and he didn't want his face to give too much away.

Tonks sat up and poured them each another firewhiskey. Her eyes watched him carefully as she handed him his glass. Her fingers touched his lightly when he took it, sending tingles all the way up his arm. But then Tonks pursed her lips, inhaled, and said, "There's something I know that I think you should know that I know."

Adrenaline pumped into his extremities, suddenly and sickeningly.

She spoke quickly, as if she had to get the words out before she changed her mind. "I should probably tell you I know you're a werewolf."

_Well, that's right out in the open now, isn't it?_ Remus thought wryly. He leaned forward onto his elbows and took a large swig of firewhiskey. His heart thudded heavily in his chest.

"Sirius didn't tell me. I knew it when he told me your name; I'd heard the stories about your leaving Hogwarts, of course. I felt like a big idiot – a big _drunk_ idiot – when I asked you at the club what you did for a living, so of course I had to play it off and pretend I didn't know about your Hogwarts job. I mean, I didn't think I'd necessarily see you again anytime soon, so I figured I should play along. You know, why put you on the spot when we'd only just met? Anyway, I'm sorry I stuck my foot in it the other night. I'm sure it's hard getting work these days, with the decrees and everything."

"I have work now," said Remus, meeting her eyes again. _Not much money, but yes, work_, he thought.

"Oh, right, sorry," she grimaced. "There I go again. Maybe that's why I'm always tripping. One foot in my mouth at all times makes it difficult to walk." They endured a few moments of silence, during which Remus began to think he should leave. He still couldn't tell her about the Order, and Tonks didn't press him about what work he did, exactly.

She went on. "Anyway, I'm sorry for blurting this out. But I didn't want you to find out from someone else that I've known all along about you. I thought _that_ might actually be more awkward than _this_." She smiled. "Although now I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps I should have kept my cakehole shut."

"It's all right," Remus said politely. "There's never a good time to talk about it. I always get snarky." _Which is why I never talk about this with girls_, he thought, trying to will his body to stand up and go back to his rented room.

"I'm sorry, I should have kept it to myself."

"No, no, I was actually wondering in the pub if you knew," he said. "You've saved me the trouble of continual worry."

Tonks cast a sidelong glance at him. "You're far too polite, Remus."

"One of my endearing young charms," he said, raising a glass.

"I've made you uncomfortable."

_Was she always this frank about everything?_ "I'm nearly always uncomfortable."

"Well, you should let _me_ be the one who's uncomfortable," Tonks insisted. "I'm the one with the foot in my mouth."

Tonks raised her glass to his and, if it was possible for one to linger while one clinked glasses, she managed to do it. Her eyes remained on his, and in their blue-green depths there was apology, and understanding, and empathy. But no fear. And better yet, no pity. He felt a little smile insinuating itself into the corners of his lips, which was fully as shocking to him as Tonks' earlier statement had been. Tonks smiled back and sipped her firewhiskey. She then coughed and shuddered as the fiery stuff coursed down her throat. "Well, that's over and done with. Let's get drunk."

Remus laughed. "Are you quite certain you haven't talked with Sirius about this?"

"No, I haven't. Why?"

"That's exactly what he said after he, James, and Peter confronted me about being a werewolf. We were, what, twelve or thirteen? But somehow he had a stash of butterbeer in his trunk."

"Sounds like him."

"And apparently like you, as well," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"The Blacks are generally driven to drink at a young age, what can I say?" Tonks reached for the bottle and refilled their drinks.

The reasonable part of Remus told him that he should say his goodbyes now. But the unreasonable part told the reasonable part that he'd do it in five minutes. Maybe ten.

* * *

_**A/N: Thanks for your patience while I finished this chapter! Sometimes life is so maddening when it interferes with fanfic. ;)**_

_**As always, reviewers get their favorite Remus. Among the choices: Flirty Remus, who likes to make you squirm when you talk about dancing in your living room; Chivalrous Remus, who walks you home despite his better judgment; and my personal favorite, Remus-Who-Has-No-Earthly-Idea-How-Shaggable-He-Is.**_


	5. The Merry Harriers

Remus was fairly certain he'd lost track of the number of whiskeys they'd had; if he had to guess, they were on number four, which was two past the limit he'd promised himself after she poured number two, and four short of Sirius' Passing Out Portion, or "pop," as his friend liked to call it. _Hold on there, _he'd say, tutting, if someone – Remus – was trying to call it a night, _I need to meet my pop_.

Something else Remus had lost track of was the number of times Tonks had made him laugh tonight, and the number of times he'd made her laugh, and the number of times they'd finished each other's sentences, and the number of times he'd caught her watching him intently with a little smile creeping up one side of her face when he was in the middle of some story, and the number of times their occasional silences had seemed filled with something he couldn't quite wrap his mind around, and the number of times he'd thought he'd glimpsed … something worth hoping for.

It was odd, feeling so at ease with a woman – and a woman who seemed to fancy him, at that – after she'd just told him she knew about his lycanthropy. But Remus remembered his knee-buckling and unexpected relief after his friends at Hogwarts had approached him with the dreaded revelation that they _knew_. Once the terror that they'd tell the entire school left him, he'd felt near to crying from the release that he'd felt: at last someone besides his parents and grandparents knew, and they didn't hate him for it. In fact, they saw it as something that bound them closer together, a secret they all now shared. Sirius must have seen his brimming emotion; looking back now, Remus felt sure the butterbeer was a distraction, to give them all something to do so that they wouldn't have to hash it out any more than they already had.

Somehow Tonks must have known that a distraction was needed tonight, as well. He felt his heart contracting as he returned her gaze during one of those strange and comfortable moments of silence, one of those odd instants that seemed to represent something more than an ordinary pause, and something slightly, slightly less than a question.

_Merlin on a pogo stick, I'm getting sentimental_, Remus thought, setting his glass down. What he said was, "Up with you. We're dancing." And somehow he didn't think it peculiar that it was he who was doing the asking, or that his idea of fun actually involved dancing. It wasn't so much that _he_ wanted to dance, but rather that he wanted to see _Tonks_ dance again. This would make the third time in as many days, and he'd only just met her.

As she stood, Tonks didn't seem to think it unusual, either. Accepting his challenge by taking the hand he offered, her grin slid upward toward her eyes, those blue-green ocean eyes, the ones he'd never considered very interesting when they sat inside his own face. Perhaps it was because those eyes now basked in the sunshine of her wide, unguarded smile, but suddenly they were beautiful to him. He felt himself grinning.

"I hope you do not expect any sort of uprightness from me, sir, in my drunken state," Tonks smirked sloppily over the traditional Irish music cranking from the Wireless.

"Not at all. This dance is all about improvisation. Variations on a theme, and you may do with it what you will. Even if it's perpendicular, sideways, or horizontal. Erm … " Remus blushed, overwhelmed by the thought of himself and Tonks perpendicular, sideways, and horizontal. "Although upright might be best." As he held her right hand in his, he pushed the sofas and coffee table aside with a casual wave of his wand and then began his instructions.

"_Balance and swing_," he said, holding tightly to her hand.

"Wha – "

"Step – two, step – four." And smoothly he had her stepping toward and away from him as their right hands provided the tension to keep their balance. "That's the _balance _part, and now – "

Tonks was still laughing that she had actually succeeded in the first two-step, and suddenly Remus was twirling her in his arms. She whooped at the sudden movement as her left hand instinctively found his right shoulder and grabbed it. His right hand had snuck around and now held her firmly at the small of her back, while his left hand gently clasped her right hand. Somehow, without any awkwardness, Tonks followed Remus as their paddle turn escalated faster. There was none of the loping or galloping that some beginners make their more experienced partners suffer through; her turning was smooth and level, as if she was a born dancer. Or perhaps simply born to dance with him.

_Merlin in a dishrag, simmer down, you_, Remus instructed himself. "Eyes on me," he said. "That way you won't get dizzy." His advice seemed unnecessary; Tonks was undoubtedly remembering her own advice to him during the night at the club, because her eyes never left him.

"What are we doing?" she giggled, and Remus thought he'd never heard a prettier sound.

"Contra dancing," he explained with a grin as he slowed the spin and released Tonks into a twirl. There was that laugh again. "It's folk dancing. Country dancing. I learned it from my Gran. I was her favorite partner; my grandfather would get winded too soon with this kind of dancing, so I'd always take over. She taught me everything I know. _Gypsy_," he commanded as he began circling her, eyes locked on hers in an intense gaze while his hands remained hidden behind his back. Tonks followed suit, her blue-green eyes squinting up at him with one eyebrow raised in a look of amused allure. She hid one hand behind her own back and swished an imaginary skirt with the other as she prowled in a circle around him. "You must have done this before," he commented.

"Oh, yes, with my plethora of partners," snickered Tonks sarcastically. Then she smiled. "You lead well."

He shook his head and made a noncommittal sound, then suddenly erupted into a self-conscious laugh.

"It's okay to be proud of it," she grinned.

"This is the only dancing I can halfway do," he admitted, realizing that his grammar was somewhat askew at the moment.

"Seems more than halfway to me," said Tonks sincerely.

Remus felt himself blushing. "_Allemande right, once and a half around_," he called out in time with the music. And he grasped her hand, right palm to right palm, thumbs locked together, elbows bent. "Pull away from me and we'll go faster."

"Whoo!" Tonks let herself lean away from him, and the spin suddenly quickened. Their once-and-a-half-around promptly became five-times-around.

Remus laughed. "Let's try it with the _balance and swing_."

"I don't know – "

"Trust me," he whispered, smiling; and he felt his breath catch in his throat as he saw her eyes dart toward his lips. After a quick two-step, they found their swing position again, this time leaning slightly away from each other, his arm around her waist, her hand on his shoulder, clasping their other hands together, eyes locked … and the spin grew even faster than before, smooth and measured, yet wild and nearing the point of being uncontrollable. If either one let loose, they both would have sailed inelegantly into the sofas and table.

The driving music intensified. The bodhran and fiddle and guitar and flute grew louder now; Remus even thought he could hear the stamping of the musicians' feet in time with the reel, almost as if the players were right there in the room with them, Remus and Tonks, the drunken dancers. Now the musicians transitioned seamlessly to a different tune, another reel; and an accordion player leapt in, adding a new insistent and melodic rhythm to the fray, a rhythm that wouldn't allow the dancers to stop now even if they'd wanted to.

"I'm getting dizzy," Tonks laughed.

"Nonsense." He smiled in what he hoped was a rakish manner. "Eyes on me."

She chuckled. "What else?"

"What else? _Do-si-do_. Pass right shoulders, then left shoulders." He released her into a twirl again. Now he stepped behind her and she quickly mirrored his movement, their right shoulders brushing as they passed by each other. He felt her peeking over her left shoulder to watch him as he returned to his original spot, passing her left shoulder and adding a single twirl himself for embellishment. _Show off_, he chastised. But he was rewarded with another giggle from Tonks.

"_Box the gnat_."

"The _what_?"

"The gnat. That's a fancy way to say 'switch positions.' Start with the _balance_."

"Step – two, step – four," muttered Tonks, biting her lip as Remus now took her hand and twirled her underneath his arm so that they had traded places. "Hmm, box the gnat," she repeated with a snigger. "Why would a gnat need boxing? Was he evil?"

"Don't ask the dance instructor," Remus laughed, taking her hands and placing them both around his waist. "I just work here. Now another swing." And his hands went around her waist and they began turning once more. After a few measures in this position he cried, "Left hand in the air!" Tonks obeyed, and he raised his own and grasped hers so that their arms overhead created a circle framing their faces, and together they kept spinning while their right arms held onto each other's waists. Remus found himself unable to stop grinning. His hand felt like it belonged on her body, as though it had a right to be there. In turn, Tonks held onto him as if she'd never let go, and he realized that he liked that very much.

"I like this swing!" she laughed.

"Do you now?" he grinned. It was his favorite.

Remus ended the spin by pulling against Tonks' torso with his right hand, keeping a light hold on her left hand, and encouraging a solo twirl underneath his fingers. She staggered a bit when she stopped and held onto his shoulders for balance.

Breathless and smiling, Tonks looked up into his face. "I cannot believe I didn't fall down at least twenty times."

"I wouldn't let you fall," he said simply, still breathing heavily.

"Somehow I – " She stopped and looked at her feet as the last chord of the set was drawn across the strings by the fiddle player's bow. She laughed breathily, ducking her head and gazing away from him toward the kitchen. There was a brief pause on the Wireless, followed by the beginning of a slow, traditional waltz.

Remus watched a blush that seemed to have little to do with their physical exertion blossom on her cheeks. He ducked his own head to try to meet her eyes. "Somehow you what?"

Her head remained turned away; but her eyes returned to his, and he watched with fascination as one black eyebrow raised in something like flirtation. "Somehow I believe that," she said quietly.

_And somehow_, Remus thought with a pounding heart, _I believe I should kiss you_. For a moment he merely stood and stared, smiling at her, watching her smiling at him, and he became aware that their satisfied breathing was happening in the same rhythm, despite their different sizes. At the same time, he realized that his hands were still on her waist, and hers on his shoulders. Now, as he watched, Tonks' fuchsia hair began wicking a different pink upward from the roots, the color of a cherry lollipop. It matched the natural blush of her cheeks, and Remus decided at once that this was his favorite color in the world, this lollipop hair, if he was indeed the cause of it; and he sincerely hoped that he was. Their faces were very close now, and he wasn't certain how that had happened, and her eyes were on his lips again, and he noticed a tiny bead of sweat on her upper lip, and the curve of her mouth was telling him …

"I should go," he heard himself saying, and he thought he might actually have winced when he said it. _Merlin under a lorry_, thought Remus, _are you a teenager?_ Tonks smiled at him and he smiled back, feeling more than a little foolish but not sure how to retract the statement now. Suddenly being a gentleman seemed a very silly thing to be. Silently cursing himself, he vowed not to be so polite the next time he caught her looking at his lips like that. _But old habits die hard_, he mused.

Slowly Tonks lowered her hands to her sides. "Life of the party, last to leave," she said, almost too cheerfully, as she stepped away from him. "If you don't leave, it's still a party."

Remus cocked his head and knitted his brow, acutely and painfully aware that a prime opportunity to kiss her had come and gone. But wasn't it too soon for that? He rubbed the palms of his hands together nervously, still somehow feeling the slope of her hips tingling within them. "Are you quite certain you aren't channeling Sirius right now? That was one of the things he always said that when he was trying to make us drink more."

Tonks laughed as she drew her wand. "Lesson number one about Sirius: There are many expressions that run in the Black family. Don't believe for a second that Sirius invented all the wittiest ones."

"Oh, really?"

"Really," said Tonks, magically sliding the coffee table and the two sofas back toward the center of the room. "For example, Sirius did not invent the phrase, 'Ruthless or toothless, she's mine.'"

Remus guffawed as his mind roved back to their later years in school, and the time after, before Harry was born. It was a confident proclamation that was invariably whispered into the ear of whichever friend happened to be closest when Sirius entered a pub and spotted a woman he wanted to meet. "How do you know he always said that?"

"Because Mum told me their Grandfather Pollux always shouted it while standing drunk on top of the formal dining table at Christmastime, just to aggravate Grandmother Irma. Of course Sirius had to adopt it."

"What?" Remus laughed. He could envision Sirius atop a grimy pub table, which had happened in reality more times than he cared to count; only now he pictured him as a wizened old codger with a long, grey beard, swaying in his boots and shouting out his amorous battle cry.

"Kind of sweet, isn't it?" Tonks went on. "I mean, she _was_ toothless there at the end, but apparently Grandpa Pollux didn't care."

"Rather a back-handed compliment, I'd say."

"Many in our family have been known to stick their feet in their mouths when they least expect it." Tonks flopped back down on her sofa with her arms stretched out along the back, one leg crossed lazily over the other. "Or mean it." She smiled tenderly, and the world seemed to grow still around her.

The waltz on the Wireless went on, and Remus settled easily back into his sofa with one arm dangling over the back and gazed across the coffee table at Tonks. Later he would be unable to recall when he'd decided to stay, but could only say that it would have felt strange indeed to leave, almost stranger than not kissing her. And so he listened as the clock on her mantle struck one, and two, and three, and smiled as their conversation became sleepier and less coherent, and watched as the last thing he saw was Tonks' eyes closing as she lay curled up on her side on the sofa across from him, the stars in her enchanted ceiling twinkling in his peripheral vision as his own heavy eyelids shut at last.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_**A/N: Thanks for your patience! It shouldn't be as long before the next chapter, and we're getting close to the end. Review and get your pick of dance lessons from the master: Gentlemanly Remus enjoys contra dancing, Frisky Remus prefers salsa, and Naughty Remus likes tango – the closer the better.**_


	6. The Speed of Gravity

And toward the early hours of dawn, Remus dreamed …

_The sun shone brightly on his face as he stood on a rocky coastline overlooking a vast lake. The water was dark, almost black, even though the surface reflected a thousand rays of shimmering sunlight. Far away from him, in the center of the lake, was a little wooden boat; and inside the boat was … himself? No, it was Harry. The boy clung to the sides of the little skiff as the water became choppy, and Remus realized he'd forgotten to give him the oars. Perhaps there _were_ no oars. He tried to call out to Harry, but no sound came from his open mouth. The wind picked up and whipped the boy's hair into his face. His glasses flew off into the dark water and disappeared. Harry reached into the water to try to reach them before they sank; but as soon as his hand plunged in, the water turned a dark, blood red. Harry yanked his hand back and quivering globs of it dripped from his shaking fingers, splattering the floor of the boat, staining his clothes. Remus watched as Harry stood upright in the rocking boat, staring in horror at his own hand. _Hang onto the boat!_ Remus thought. Suddenly Harry lunged forward on his hands and knees at the prow, nearly upsetting the skiff, and peered out toward the horizon. He became still, almost calm. Remus followed his gaze and his heart leapt. On a small island, far away in the center of the lake, stood Lily and James, watching their son make his way without oars through the lake of blood. Harry was nearly there now, hanging onto that rocking boat; but Remus felt helpless. There wasn't a thing he could do to aid the boy. Harry could fall into the lake and drown in that hideous blood, in front of his parents, and Remus would have failed Lily and James. _

_But then he became aware of a presence next to him. First, a hand, with its five slender fingers outstretched, like a star. Remus followed the hand up the arm, to a narrow shoulder, and a profile with high cheekbones and straight, black eyebrows, a face framed by fiery hair that shifted and glimmered like sunshine reflected in ocean waves, and eyes that looked steadily ahead when he, somehow, could no longer bear to do so. Tonks gazed out at Harry, at Lily and James, and calmly held her hand out beside her, waiting for Remus to take it. Without thinking about what he was doing, or why, he intertwined his fingers with hers. Tonks squeezed his hand and smiled, still not looking at him, still watching Harry. Remus looked out at the water, and the boat was now being carried along a current of red, coppery hair, Lily's hair, and he felt somehow that he'd been here before as the clouds above were mirrored in the tendrils and the tendrils were mirrored in the clouds. And then the boat was gone, and Lily and James were gone, and the water was clear and still and reflected the blue of the sky and all the little fluffy clouds in it, and Harry ran up the shore and over the hill, farther and farther away from the watchers until they could see him no more. _

_Remus and Tonks simply remained where they were, holding hands, gazing at the place where Harry had disappeared over the horizon, content that everything was all right now, that everything would be all right. Satisfied, Remus exhaled ... _

And inhaled as he awoke. The stars in Tonks' enchanted ceiling were fading as day broke. As he lay there blinking at them, he promptly forgot his dream.

But he remembered something else. He remembered the song that had been niggling his subconscious since the night he had met Tonks. It was Lily's song, the one she sang in the Hog's Head on his seventeenth birthday, the one about the mermaid having to leave her human child behind when she returned to her watery home in the sea. And although the song had made Lily teary-eyed at the time, Remus somehow felt that there was nothing sad in it. The mermaid had to go; there was a destiny larger than herself at work, and her choice, though difficult, had to be made. Strangely, it made sense now, though if he'd had to explain it he wouldn't know where to begin. Perhaps parents and children were separated, and that was terrible. Perhaps they were reunited, and that was miraculous. Everything had its purpose. Everything had to happen the way it was supposed to happen; and sometimes it happened the way humans, in their wisdom or stupidity, _thought_ it was supposed to happen, and that was how choices were born every day.

Remus' stomach growled, yanking him out of his heady reverie, and he swiveled his face toward the small figure curled up on the opposite sofa. Tonks' hair was black now, its natural color, Remus supposed, sticking straight up and plastered flat on one side of her head. Her wrist was bent at an odd angle as she used it as extra support for her pointed little chin, and her other hand was tucked under her neck, for warmth, perhaps. Her knees were drawn up almost to her chest, and he watched the side of her ribcage as it rose and fell evenly. Her socked toes rubbed against each other three times and were still again. Remus felt a smile tug the corners of his lips and he looked away.

He spotted a blanket hanging over a straight-backed chair next to the door, so he gingerly got up and tiptoed over to it. Bringing the blanket back, he crouched next to Tonks and slipped it over her as gently as he could. Sitting this close to her, he could smell her shampoo, or her perfume, or whatever it was that made women smell so damned good. He could see the little pores in the tip of her nose, the way her eyes moved under the eyelids as if she were dreaming, her mouth so relaxed and full …

But it certainly wouldn't do for Tonks to awake and find him crouched next to her, staring into her face. Remus stood up immediately, silently cursing his knees for crackling as he did so; but her eyelids didn't flutter. He made his way to her tiny bathroom, where her talking mirror appeared to be asleep, judging by the little snoring noises emitting from it. Then he crept to the kitchen and quietly assembled the materials for an omelet, feeling oddly at home in her small space.

As breakfast scents began to fill the flat, Tonks began to stir and Remus looked toward the sofa. He saw two fists appear from the end of it as she stretched and made the strangest stretching noises he'd ever heard – even stranger than his own. Then the fists disappeared again with a heavy sigh, and all was silent for several minutes. Remus grinned and flipped the omelet. He gradually became aware of being watched, but he deliberately made himself avoid looking toward the shock of spiky red hair in his peripheral vision. If he'd spied on her this morning, then she deserved to get her own back. But, even though he knew she was peeking at him, he couldn't prevent a smile from crinkling his eyes.

"You are not cooking in my kitchen again." Tonks' voice was raspy from sleep. With that greeting, Remus finally allowed himself to look at her.

"Apparently I am," he replied, letting a full grin take over the smile he'd been struggling to contain.

"What's the world coming to?" she muttered, rubbing her eyes hard with the backs of her knuckles. She shuffled in her sock feet toward the bathroom, and Remus was pleased to discover that she took her time there. That must mean she felt comfortable with him handling the breakfast arrangements. Well, he thought wryly, being a househusband could be a noble career, if all else failed; it could have its own merits, at least. Then he chuckled at himself for thinking such domestic thoughts. He set the table and started the tea, feeling rather blissful indeed.

When Tonks appeared again, she had donned her squeaky bedroom slippers. Remus eyed them curiously. She glanced down at her feet and shrugged. "I feel it's best to let people I like know when I am approaching."

Remus laughed.

"Dad gave them to me as a joke," she explained with a self-conscious grin, settling easily at the table and watching Remus serve the omelets.

"I think they're adorable," he admitted.

Tonks blushed and giggled, and suddenly her red hair wicked pink. Remus tried not to glance at it, instead focusing on her blue-green eyes as he seated himself across from her. "Bon appétit," he offered, feeling decidedly giddier than he had in years. He was quickly realizing that it was hard not to smile in Tonks' presence. "So, what's scheduled for today?"

As Tonks detailed the Ministry's plans, her hair slowly returned to the vibrant red she had chosen for today; but her eyes remained the same blue-green he was growing accustomed to seeing, a blue-green he had to confess he was rather fond of, since he knew now that it meant she was smitten with him. He felt a little ashamed of the advantage he had; after all, she had no way of knowing, really, that he was just as smitten as she was – perhaps more so. But today wasn't the day to tell her how he felt, or to ask her on a date. There was too much to do, and too much for Tonks to prove to her superiors. Remus decided he had to let her focus.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was more paperwork at the office, and more interviews with the girls, although they were no closer to figuring out how the Benassi brothers had managed their kidnappings. Remus was pleased that he was allowed to help Tonks with her charge. Mary – or Mairead, as her parents had named her, as all the Aurors now called her – behaved as if she were in a daze most of the morning and afternoon. By three o'clock she fell fast asleep across from the desk that Tonks shared with another trainee, curled up with her head on the worn arm of the overstuffed chair. Fifteen minutes later she woke up again, her fit of exhaustion apparently over and now replaced with a quiet anxiety. She began alternately clinging to Tonks and Remus and providing comfort to the other girls, the ones who seemed to need it the most. At one point she huddled by herself in one corner of the tiny office, knees hugged to her chest. It was too much for one seven-year-old to comprehend, and certainly too much to process in one day.

Tonks remained focused, although she put on a chipper face for the children. But Remus could see how affected she was by what they faced tonight. He tried to be cheerful for her, to offer her strength; he was repaid with private grins and the occasional arm squeeze.

As the moon rose, Remus, the Aurors, and the Aurors-in-training gathered the children for Side-Along Apparition to a quiet seashore south of Dublin where the Selkie parents would meet them. With no cloud cover, the night sky provided enough light to see by. The undulating waves were as black as volcanic glass as they languidly and repeatedly reached toward the shore; and they shimmered with the reflection of the waning moon and thousands of stars. No sea had ever looked this dark and mysterious, Remus reflected; he thought it was beautiful. In the distance was the faint clinking of piano keys from a small cottage that he couldn't see from here; the wizarding family who lived there must be hosting a small gathering. Remus thought he could hear a woman singing.

Now they waited for the tide to come in.

Tonks was busy with the other witches and wizards, setting protection spells around the area so that any Muggles taking a moonlit stroll along that beach would suddenly have an irrepressible urge to go home for a bowl of muesli. Remus settled onto the cold sand and rough, crushed seashells with Mairead, who now stared at the water with a blank expression. She, like the other girls, had abandoned her clothing back at the office and sat wrapped in her Selkie pelt, waiting for the water to rise high enough for her parents to approach the shore safely. She held onto a blue flower that Tonks had given her, twirling it absently between her small, shaking fingers. The moonlight reflected on one narrow, exposed shoulder.

Remus tugged the Selkie pelt toward Mairead's neck, because it was cold here with the sea breeze whipping their hair and microscopic bits of sand biting their faces. Almost in response to his action, the girl shivered. Then her gaze traveled upward to the clear, black sky. "I don't like the moon," she said.

Remus smiled and sighed. "Sometimes I don't, either," he replied honestly.

They sat in silence for a while. The waves lapped the sand and made little watery, sucking noises as they approached and retreated.

"Why don't you like the moon?" Remus asked, glancing at her.

Mairead's face grew hard again, and for a moment he thought she wouldn't answer. But at last she spoke, in a quiet voice that he had to strain to hear over the crash of the waves. "The moon was full when my parents caught that lobster. It was so big, and it looked funny, but we ate some of it, and it tasted strange. The moon was full when they got so sleepy. I was sleepy, too. The moon was full when the man – that man came – I think he took me onto a boat. I think it was a boat. It kept moving. And there was that man, and some other girls, and it was dark there, and we were all sick and asleep, too. And my parents didn't stop him. They slept. They slept, even though – " She spoke without any emotion, her jaw set; and Remus was quiet in the face of that courage. She tried again to speak, but her voice caught a second time. "Even though – "

_Even though you screamed and screamed_, Remus thought with a frown. He kept watching the water, so that she could cry if she needed to, without being scrutinized. But her shoulders didn't shake. Tough little girl. The tears would come later, probably when she was alone, and they would be as salty as the sea. His throat worked for a moment as he tried to decide what to say. His parents had never forgiven themselves for not being able to protect him from Greyback; and, worse, they thought _he'd_ never forgiven them, either. Nothing Remus said or did could convince them otherwise, for as long as his parents were alive; and it burdened him still. He wrapped an arm around Mairead's shoulders, and she didn't resist. "It wasn't your parents' fault," he said softly. "The lobster must have been given a bad potion by the man who took you away."

She was quiet for several seconds. "Really?" she asked finally.

"I think so," said Remus. "You have a good memory, to think of that lobster."

"Things are coming back now," she replied, fingering her pelt.

"I'm glad."

"But I won't forget this, will I, when I go back?"

"This … ?"

"Being a girl."

Remus thought for a moment. "No, I don't think you will." And it might make things difficult for her, but he didn't say that. She was forever changed now; so were the rest of the girls. Who would they be when they returned home?

Mairead looked down at the flower in her hand. Then she stuck it behind her ear and nestled closer to Remus. He felt her look away, down the seashore, so he stole a glance at her face. Still no tears. He looked up at the sky.

"You know, Mairead," he began, "the moon is outnumbered."

She tilted her face up at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, see all those stars up there?" He pointed and she looked. "Do you know what those are?"

"Our teacher – I mean, Mrs. Benassi – the bad lady – said they were suns, like ours." She squinted and blinked, as if she were trying to focus her eyes.

"That's right," said Remus. "You _do_ have a good memory."

"I guess."

"Do you know how big they are?"

"Some of them are really big. Bigger than planets."

"Very good. And do you know how many we can see up there?"

"I dunno."

"Probably, oh, a couple thousand are close enough for us to see, not to mention the billions more that are farther away that we _can't_ see. And that's just on _this_ side of the planet."

"Oh."

"So you know, that crummy little moon up there doesn't really stand a chance against all those huge stars."

Mairead swallowed. "Oh."

Remus became aware of another presence to his left. He looked and found Tonks seated a few feet away and slightly behind them, watching him with a tender expression on her face. He smiled at her over Mairead's head. Tonks smiled back and mouthed, "Thank you."

He blushed and turned his face back to Mairead. "It'll be soon now," Remus whispered in her ear.

"I won't see you or Miss Tonks again, will I?" she whispered back. And then she looked him in the face as if she were trying to memorize it, like she had the lobster, the moon, and the books about the stars.

Remus' heart felt wrung out. He slowly shook his head. "Probably not," he admitted. "Although I wouldn't say it it's impossible."

Now Tonks scooted closer to the opposite side of Mairead and wrapped an arm around the girl's waist. "Your parents will be so happy to have you home again."

Mairead nodded solemnly, staring again out at the water. Tonks caught Remus' eye for a split second, then they both faced the sea again. As they watched, they began to notice that the water was glowing a faint electric blue, and the light was quickly coming closer. Mairead quickly stood on her tiptoes to try to see; so Remus rose and hoisted her onto his hip so she would have a better view. There was movement, and gradually he began to make out the forms of Selkies bobbing along the waves, raising their arms and calling out to their children in high-pitched, strident voices. They had brought bioluminescent jellyfish and plankton with them to light the way; and the sea, so black and foreboding before, was now alight with blue, glowing life.

"That's – that's – " Mairead stretched her arms out, pointing and struggling so much that Remus barely had time to lower her to the ground before she started running toward the water. But she stopped suddenly and wheeled around, running back up the beach, kicking up sand from her heels. She ran headlong into Remus and Tonks and clutched them fiercely. The girl was shaking, but still there were no tears. "I'm sorry I won't see you again," she said quickly.

Tonks kissed her on the cheek. "We are, too," she replied with a smile.

Mairead wavered, darting her gaze to the water and back. "I – they're – "

"Go!" Tonks shooed her with both hands, laughing, and then she kicked her shoes off and began tugging at her socks and rolling her jeans up. Remus followed suit. "We'll walk partway out with you, but go on! Your parents are waiting!"

"Okay, thanks, Miss Tonks, Mister Lupin," Mairead breathed, eyes looking wild and excited and fearful. "Erm … bye."

And she ran away from them down the beach toward her parents, as did the rest of the girls. Some splashed and shrieked joyfully as they reached the water; some waded out in silence, slowly, methodically. As for Mairead, she walked with determination, as if she were leaning into a fierce wind. As soon as the water was at the level of her thighs and began to soak the pelt, it melded to her skin and her body morphed awkwardly, finally settling into the sleek figure of a young Selkie. Without hesitation, she leapt head first into the waves and disappeared into blue luminescence. Remus and Tonks tried to follow her with their eyes; and they spotted her once more, her wet head bobbing above the waves as she swam easily to her parents, who embraced and prodded her, turning her head from side to side and nuzzling her.

Mairead craned her head back toward the shore, and Tonks waved wildly at her with one free arm. Remus glanced down and noticed that he was holding her other hand, although he didn't remember taking it. Then he gazed up at Tonks' face, and his heart quivered. Sudden, quiet tears had sprung from her eyes when he wasn't looking, and her breath came in hitches and her chin shook; but her grin, that infectious, unparalleled grin, was still there as she waved madly at the little Selkie in the water.

And Remus realized that he was falling in love with Tonks.

He looked back toward the ocean and thought he spotted which bobbing head was Mairead's, and he waved his free arm, too, just in case she could see him. Parents raised their webbed, clawed hands in silent thanks, one by one bowing their heads briefly at the humans who stood waving from the shore or, like Remus and Tonks, knee deep in the cold seawater. Then, as quickly as they had arrived, the Selkies retreated back into their deep, watery home. The bright jellyfish went with them; but a lot of the plankton remained, giving the water an ethereal glow.

Remus regarded their feet and shins in the water, still illuminated by that strange, biological light. He noticed that Tonks' toenails matched her red hair.

"Oh, no." Tonks' voice was soft.

Remus looked up. She held Mairead's blue flower, which must have fallen onto her jacket when the girl – the Selkie – hugged them.

"It's all right," Remus said, taking the flower from Tonks' fingers. "She doesn't need it." He still held Tonks' other hand in his own.

Tonks looked miserably toward the sea again and sighed.

"Oh!" said Remus, suddenly thinking of what Mairead had recalled just before the adult Selkies arrived – how Barnabas Benassi had managed to snatch the children from their parents by poisoning their food, probably with a Sleeping Draught. "I have some good news."

Tonks faced him expectantly, her eyes shimmering dark blue-green in the moonlight and the blue glow of the sea. "Yes?"

But instead of relating the tale of the poison, he found himself stepping into her, cupping her cheek with the hand that still held the blue flower, and pressing his lips to hers. He felt her smile briefly, and then she returned the kiss, the warmth of her mouth a welcome counterpoint to the cold water lapping around their feet and ankles. Remus trembled as Tonks pressed her body into his and kissed him eagerly, wholly. The blue flower was pulled from his fingertips, and he felt Tonks slip it behind his ear just before she wrapped that arm around his waist, underneath his coat, and urged him closer. Remus' fingers, now free, found their way into the soft hair at the nape of Tonks' neck, hair that was now bright pink again; and he wouldn't have been surprised if his _own_ hair had finally turned pink. He forgot entirely what he was about to say as he fell completely into this kiss, into Tonks.

The kiss reached a natural pause as their shivering became too much to endure, so they splashed out of the freezing sea and cast warming and drying charms on their feet. Sitting next to each other, they rolled their trouser legs back down and donned their sandy socks and shoes again. Most of the other Aurors had already Apparated back to the office.

Tonks smiled quietly. Then she began to laugh, her shoulders shaking as she leaned against Remus'. He looked at her quizzically. "That _was_ good news."

"What was – oh." Remembering that he was about to tell her about the Sleeping Draught, Remus blushed. Tonks laughed loudly at his absent-mindedness, although her voice was immediately made small by the wind and waves. "Another time," he said, chuckling. That story could wait until they returned to make their report, he thought, as he lowered his mouth to her sandy, salty lips once more.

* * *

**_A/N: For those of you waiting so patiently for an update to this story, thank you. And for those of you who will take the time to review this chapter, thank you. If you want to see more, there will be one more chapter – an epilogue. _**


	7. At Last

Remus had, of course, seen a few Howlers before, and had witnessed the terror they could inspire with just a few shrieked words; but this was the first Howler he had ever personally received. So how could he know that it was one of the loudest, shrillest, and lengthiest Howlers a person could get? He stood clutching the back of a chair as he gawked at the flimsy parchment screeching at him from the center of the kitchen table.

**_"HOW DARE YOU NOT TELL ME THAT YOU WERE CHECKING ON ME FOR DUMBLEDORE! THAT WAS A VERY SNEAKY AND UNDERHANDED THING TO DO TO SOMEONE! AND WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE ORDER, OR THAT YOU WERE PART OF IT?! I KNEW THAT STORY I WRUNG OUT OF YOU ABOUT WORKING AT A BOOK SHOP WAS A LOAD OF BOLLOCKS! _**

**_"AND MAKING ME FALL FOR YOU AT THE SAME BLOODY TIME YOU WERE SPYING ON ME WAS COMPLETELY UNCALLED FOR! FIVE MONTHS OF SUBTERFUGE! FIVE MONTHS OF LONG-DISTANCE WOOING AND DATING AND WHATNOT – ESPECIALLY THE WHATNOT – AND ALL THE WHILE YOU AND MOODY AND DUMBLEDORE WERE PLOTTING TO POP THIS ON ME THE INSTANT I PASSED THE AUROR EXAMS! I OUGHT TO HEX YOU INTO NEXT WEEK FOR THAT! BUT I WON'T BECAUSE YOU'RE SUCH A BLOODY GOOD KISSER!" _**

Remus laughed. And as though the Howler had anticipated this, it went on:

**_"DON'T YOU DARE LAUGH, THIS IS SERIOUS!!!!! _**

**_"AND SPEAKING OF SIRIUS AND HIS METHODS OF DISTRACTION, DON'T YOU EVER TRY TO DISTRACT ME WITH KISSES EVER AGAIN BECAUSE I CAN PROMISE YOU THAT NEXT TIME, REMUS LUPIN, IT WON'T WORK! BECAUSE I AM AN AUROR NOW, AND AN AUROR WITH A SPECIAL UNDERCOVER JOB, TOO, MISTER SMARTY-PANTS, AND YOU CAN'T FOOL ME! NO SECRET IS SAFE! SO YOU'D BETTER BE SUFFICIENTLY CONTRITE WHEN I SEE YOU AGAIN! THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING!" _**

The Howler lowered its voice for a moment.

"AS MAD AS I AM, I SUPOSE I SHOULD THANK YOU FOR PUTTING IN A GOOD WORD WITH DUMBLEDORE FOR ME."

But then it began shrieking again.

**_"ALTHOUGH I HOPE IT WASN'T JUST SO YOU'D GET ME INTO BED, BECAUSE TRUST ME, THAT WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN NECESSARY!" _**

It lowered its voice again.

"OH. I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU TO OPEN THIS WHEN YOU WERE ALONE."

It screeched once more.

**_"NEVERTHELESS! YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT THE ENDS DO NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS, EVEN IF THE ENDS ARE COMPLETELY FABULOUS! _**

**_"WAIT, YOU ARE GETTING ME OFF THE SUBJECT! DON'T DISTRACT ME! GRRRR!!" _**

Remus snorted as the Howler actually growled at him and ruffled its edges threateningly like the fringe of a Chinese Fireball. But of course it went on:

**_"I'M REALLY MAD AT YOU! AND DAMN IT ALL, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU TONIGHT!!!!!" _**

The Howler then folded itself into a mouth and kissed Remus full-on, making him stagger backward in shock. The paper tasted salty, as salty as Tonks' lips at the seashore, as salty as a long afternoon in bed together. He blinked, licking his lips, and watched the Howler tear itself into a hundred little pieces and toss itself over his head like confetti. It was wet like sea spray and smelled of waves and sand.

Remus stood in shock for a full five seconds. Then he chuckled, feeling rather pleased with his own sneakiness and, as usual, more than a little impressed by Tonks' creativity. They'd talked about wanting to go back to that beach south of Dublin after the Selkies were taken home; but between his busy schedule and hers, they'd never had the chance. And here she'd sent him a little bit of that place … in a Howler, no less.

Sirius sauntered sleepily into the kitchen, carrying glasses from last night's brief Order meeting in the library. He set the tray on the counter next to the sink. "What was all the ruckus in here?" he muttered.

Suddenly Remus laughed, a deep belly laugh that cheered him as thoroughly as if Tonks were standing here next to him pulling a face or making one of her wry little jokes. He Vanished the bits of paper out of his hair and off his shoulders, chortling contentedly. Sirius glanced at him with a raised eyebrow as he began casting Cleansing Charms on the glasses.

"It seems that our Tonks received Dumbledore's owl," grinned Remus at last. "She's pleased as punch, but very put out with me for not telling her myself."

"I told you, you're too much of a secretive bastard for your own good," said Sirius, turning back to the dirty dishes. "It's a wonder she doesn't finish with you once and for all."

"Yes," said Remus. "It's a wonder, isn't it?" But his grin widened

"It'll be nice having her around more often," murmured Sirius, and Remus saw a tiny smile tug the corner of his friend's lips.

"Hmm," agreed Remus as he gathered bread, eggs, and tomatoes to prepare a breakfast.

Sirius started the coffee and settled, yawning and stretching, into a chair, from whence he watched his friend work, as his own chore this week was washing the dishes. He would get bored with that job by Wednesday, most likely, and Remus would agree to exchange it for some other household task.

As Remus hummed and cooked, no more was said about Tonks joining the Order. But both their hearts seemed lighter this morning. Even the kitchen itself, with its mold growing from underneath the cabinets, seemed a bit less gloomy.

After breakfast, Remus Summoned some parchment and a quill to the table.

"Who are you writing?" asked Sirius as he leaned back on the rear legs of his chair and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"Well, I can't let Tonks have the last word with that Howler, now, can I?"

Remus began scribbling figures and casting spells on the parchment while Sirius watched. Grinning to himself, Remus wouldn't say any more about it, despite Sirius' dogged questions. He remained silent when his friend caught him consulting several books in the library upstairs, and even when he reported that he was going out for "a spot of Muggle shopping."

"Secretive bastard," said Sirius, finally giving up and going upstairs to talk to Buckbeak.

* * *

That evening Remus took extra care dressing – so much so that he caught Kingsley eyeing him curiously over the kitchen table. Remus squirmed nervously. Fortunately, there were too many others in the kitchen already for him to have to endure probing questions about wardrobe. Remus didn't think Tonks' first meeting at the Order was the time for everyone to find out about their relationship; so, in the meantime, he supposed he'd have to endure a raised eyebrow or two over his best shirt and jumper. 

Right on schedule, they heard a string of colorful language followed by Moody's booming voice from the hallway telling Walburga to "shut up before I turn you into a stick figure!" Sirius winked at Remus and pushed his chair back to head upstairs.

Remus' heart leapt. Tonks would be in tow, after her first day of orientation at the Ministry, followed, per Dumbledore's request, by a dinner meeting with Mad-Eye for Order orientation.

He heard Tonks squeal as she no doubt captured Sirius in a bear hug. Then all was silent for a few moments. Remus tried to bring his attention back to the conversation at the table; but he quickly noticed that, for some reason, Kingsley was staring at him again.

"That must be Nymphadora Tonks," Remus said as neutrally as he could.

Kinglsey nodded, his face as deadpan as a codfish.

The two men stared at each other for a few seconds, during which time Remus realized he probably couldn't be more transparent if he tried.

He decided to excuse himself.

Perhaps he'd better go upstairs to meet her after all, because on second thought he didn't think he could be trusted not to allow himself a kiss on the cheek – or more – and that wouldn't exactly help Tonks make a good first impression here. She'd been asked into the Order on her own merits, after all, not because of her boyfriend.

_Boyfriend_. Even now, Remus still hardly dared believe it.

Climbing the stairs, the first thing he saw was the back of Tonks' pink hair; she'd made it longer tonight, which inexplicably caused Remus' heart to rumble with pleasure. As he reached the landing he saw her new Auror robes, and a sudden pride filled him. It was a good thing he'd decided to come upstairs, because he couldn't stop a huge smile from plastering itself across his face.

There was a lull in the conversation as Tonks stepped back from Sirius, still clutching his elbow.

"Hello," said Remus.

At the sound of his quiet greeting Tonks turned, and her black eyes immediately shifted to blue-green, as quick as a bolt of lightning, or the flash of a camera; the transition was so swift and startling that Remus felt his breath catch in his throat.

"Wotcher, Remus," breathed Tonks. Her smile was as broad as his certainly must be.

He felt his heart swell.

To provide a distraction to Moody during what must be such an obvious reunion – after all, they hadn't seen each other in the past three weeks, during her last Auror tasks and exams, peppered with a series of grueling interviews at the Ministry – Remus pulled out the parchment he had charmed earlier and handed it to Tonks.

She eyed him cheekily and blushed, then made to open it. She'd barely peeled back the edge a sliver when the sound of a bow being drawn across violin strings cut the air. Quickly Remus pinched the letter closed again to silence it.

"After," he said, trying to nip his grin in the bud.

"Strange sound for a Howler to be making," said Tonks, cocking her head and appraising him sidelong.

Oh, how he loved that look.

"Come on," he managed, allowing a greedy hand to settle on the small of her back. "Everyone wants to meet you."

He thought he heard a muffled "harrumph" from Mad-Eye and a chuckle from Sirius as the four of them descended the stairs.

* * *

Never before had Remus wished for a meeting to end the way he wished this one would. 

And never had he had such difficulty controlling his own face.

Now that Tonks was here, he wanted to smile and never stop; but that would look rather odd, he reasoned, as he didn't think he'd ever actually quite truly smiled – smiled in the giddy way he wanted to smile now – during an Order meeting before tonight … which, of course, made it all the more difficult to keep from grinning like a lovesick fool.

Everything Tonks said during tonight's lengthy introductions made Remus feel ridiculously puffed up with pride. She'd done her homework, smart girl, and was prepared to ask questions or make comments about each and every Order member's experiences, skills, and ambitions. He could tell that the group was taking an instant liking to her, and he thought his heart would burst. Twice Remus caught Dumbledore chuckling beneath his long, silvery beard, and Remus was gratified that the older wizard seemed duly impressed and delighted by Tonks' presence. How could anyone not be bowled over by this woman, after all?

How could anyone help but love her?

Finally, at long last, the meeting concluded. Partners planned to meet for their next assignments. Some people reiterated and memorized instructions, and some charmed maps to look like inconsequential memos or letters and tucked them away discreetly into pockets of robes. Eventually, one by one, they murmured their goodnights as they ascended the stairs to the front hallway, quietly, so as not to disturb Mrs. Black. Arthur Weasley pulled Dumbledore aside for a word, and Tonks found herself cornered by Molly and Kingsley for several minutes.

As Remus busied himself helping Sirius clear the glasses and papers from the table, he spotted Tonks shooting him a glance. Tonks' smile was followed by a shrewd stare at him by Molly. _Drat all women and their sixth senses for these things_, thought Remus with a smirk. Even Kingsley gave Remus a jovial nod before he left, his dark eyes landing fleetingly on Tonks again before he exited the kitchen.

This relationship wouldn't remain a secret for very long.

Well, for once Remus had a secret he didn't mind sharing – a secret of which he was, he had to admit, rather proud indeed. Undoubtedly he would have to endure advice from Molly and a certain amount of ribbing from Mundungus, perhaps from Kinglsey, as well; but the rest of the Order would likely remain close-lipped about it. Nevertheless, he felt himself smiling.

Next to him at the sink, Sirius hummed under his breath. Remus' grin broadened.

Soon Dumbledore called his goodnights to Remus and Sirius. Then Arthur tugged his wife away from Tonks, reminding her that they had boys at home who were probably already into some sort of trouble that might take until midnight to sort out. Reluctantly, Molly bid Tonks farewell and trudged upstairs, whispering with her husband.

When all was silent, Tonks sighed, facing Sirius and Remus across the kitchen. "Thank Merlin _that's_ over," she said with a happy grimace. "I tend to be bollocks at introductions, so I thought I'd better try extra hard not to put my foot in it."

"You were wonderful," said Remus, and Sirius nodded.

Suddenly Tonks raced across the kitchen and captured Remus and Sirius round their necks, planting a kiss on Sirius' cheek and one on Remus' mouth.

"Welcome, welcome, little Nymph!" laughed Sirius, still hugging her.

"It's _Tonks_, you antiquated git," she replied swiftly, grinning back at him.

"I'm glad you're here," said Remus, keeping an arm wrapped snugly around her waist.

Tonks socked him on the shoulder. Her voice was a growl, but her eyes revealed her delight. "I can't _believe_ you didn't _tell_ me! All that time, and you didn't breathe a word!"

"Our Moony is nothing if not a secretive bastard," quipped Sirius, turning to finish up the glasses.

As soon as Sirius' back was turned, Tonks threw her arms around Remus' neck and kissed him soundly.

"I can _hear_ that, you know," said Sirius in a sing-song voice.

Remus and Tonks finished their kiss, unable to keep from snickering silently into each other's mouths.

"All right, I'm turning around now," said Sirius from his position at the sink. "Pull your knickers back up, Remus."

Tonks swatted Sirius, and the three of them settled down at the table again. Soon a bottle of firewhiskey sat between them and idle conversation passed their smiling lips. An hour and then two ticked slowly by as Sirius filled Tonks in on some of the juicier bits of gossip about a few Order members, paying special attention to Snape; and Remus finally confessed the true history of his life since leaving Hogwarts. Tonks told them how nervous she'd been tonight, and later she described the flat she'd secured for herself in town; but her eyes darted mischievously towards Remus as she spoke. Clearly, she hadn't planned on sleeping in her own bed tonight, which was fine by Remus. He felt a grin sliding up one side of his face at the thought.

With that, Sirius yawned and stretched in such an exaggerated way that Tonks actually snorted. "Well, kids, I'm going to bed." He stood and shuffled to the kitchen door. "What do you want for breakfast, Nym – erm, Tonks?"

Tonks looked at Remus and smiled. "Pancakes."

"Your wish is my command," said Sirius. "As long as Remus helps me make them." And with a rakish grin at the two of them, he was gone.

Immediately he reappeared in the doorway. "You know, it's not too late for that threesome – "

Remus threw a dish towel at him and Sirius vanished again, chuckling on his way upstairs. Tonks giggled.

Remus and Tonks grinned at each other and listened until Sirius' footsteps disappeared. Finally the kitchen was as quiet as a chapel.

"'Lo," said Remus, his eyes darting happily over her welcome features.

"Hi," Tonks beamed.

They regarded each other silently, smiling, for a while. Remus almost couldn't believe she was finally here.

"Thank you, Remus." Tonks' voice was quiet, her expression shy.

"For what?"

"For putting in a good word for me."

Remus shook his head. "It was as much Moody as it was me. He thinks you're brilliant, too."

"Really? He does?"

Remus nodded. "And he wouldn't even have asked you to shag him senseless every weekend during your last five months of Auror training – "

Tonks kicked his foot under the table, snickering. "Well, he _was_ right about one thing about me, at least."

"What's that?"

"A pre-mission shag goes a long way towards calming the nerves."

Remus and Tonks burst into laughter. They giggled a good, long while, watching each other and wiping tears of mirth from their eyes.

Tonks finally lowered her gaze to her glass, her fingers tracing the edge. "I, erm, didn't exactly _ask_ if I could spend the – "

"You know I wasn't about to let you leave tonight," said Remus. Tonks raised her eyes to his again and smiled, more broadly this time. "Besides," he went on, "if you left now, Sirius would have no one but me to make fun of in the morning."

"Well, in that case, I'd be delighted to stay."

"Thank you."

"Just looking out for you."

Their hands reached across the table and clasped each other. Another comfortable silence stretched between them as they watched one another and smiled. "I'm really glad you're here," said Remus again, feeling serenity settle over him like a warm quilt.

"I know," said Tonks, her eyes shining. "Me, too."

"At last," he said, his eyes fixed on hers.

Remus' thumb stroked the top of Tonks' hand, and with that simple motion the silence between them changed, and the very air around them seemed to shimmer with yearning. Tonks slid her empty glass to the center of the table and stood up. Remus pushed his chair back as she climbed onto his lap, and at once they became a tangle of arms and lips and heat, murmuring words of longing into each other's mouths as they clung together. Three weeks had been too long to be apart, and they both felt it acutely.

"Remus," whispered Tonks as she tugged his jumper over his head and tossed it onto the kitchen table, "I can't wait. Let's go to your room – "

"Yes," he agreed, pulling at the clasps on her new Auror's robes.

They both noticed the parchment that fell out of her right-hand pocket as her cloak landed on the floor.

"Oh," said Tonks with a snigger. "Your Howler."

"Better open it quick, before it explodes on its own." Remus covered her neck in a wet kiss as she bent to retrieve the letter from the floor.

Still seated snugly on his lap, Tonks slid a finger underneath the seal. Immediately the same strain of romantic music as before began to play – violins – a slow, sweeping, old-fashioned melody. Gleefully, Tonks smiled – Remus' most favorite raw and unguarded smile. He quickly cast a wordless Darkness Charm, and the room became completely black for a moment. But soon the spells from his parchment took effect, and other sources of illumination began to light her features once more. Remus watched her eyes widen in delight.

The parchment lifted itself out of Tonks' hands and began to unfold itself and multiply, until the entire kitchen was covered in paper – floor, walls, and ceiling. It wadded, crumpled, refolded, and tore itself into shapes, coloring itself as if with an invisible crayon into shades of blue, green, gold, brown, silver, and white. On the floor it became microscopic bits of glittering sand. Near the sink it undulated repeatedly as wave after papery blue-green wave advanced toward and retreated from the kitchen table where they still sat. Above them, a harmless white origami paper moon and silvery paper stars twinkled within a black parchment sky. Sea "spray" splattered their faces as little bits of charmed wet paper flung themselves at them, sent from the waves on the far side of the kitchen. Tonks looked above her in wonder.

"Show-off," she whispered happily, eyes bright.

Remus squeezed her waist and buried his face in her neck. "I had inspiration."

All around them, the violins swelled with each papery crash of the waves against the kitchen floor. And then a woman's voice began to sing:

_At last … my love has come along _

Tonks smiled, looking as though she didn't know whether she should laugh or cry.

She settled for kissing.

_My lonely days are over  
And life is like a song _

Remus gently pushed against Tonks' hips, and they stood. He took her right hand in his left, wrapping his right arm around her waist.

_At last … skies above are blue  
My heart was wrapped up in clover  
The night I looked at you _

Tonks leaned her head on Remus' shoulder, and they swayed, so slowly that anyone watching might not have noticed that they were dancing at all.

_I found a dream that I could speak to  
A dream that I can call my own  
I found a thrill to press my cheek to  
A thrill that I have never known _

_Oh … _

Tonks raised her face to Remus' and they hesitated, watching each other, their faces mirrored in each other's eyes, matching blue-green eyes, and the longing in them was as unstoppable as the papery blue-green waves crashing and crumpling behind them.

_And you smiled … you smiled _

_Oh and then the spell was cast  
And here we are in heaven  
For you are mine … at last _

In the end, kisses replaced dancing, and their bodies decided the matter for them. By their kitchen seaside they would remain tonight, until the charms Remus had placed on the parchment wore off, until the birds of summer started twittering outside, reminding them to put their clothes back on and sweep the remains of the sea and the starlight into the fireplace.

**_THE END_ **

* * *

**_A/N: Well, that's it, folks! A heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who has left such generous and kind feedback. Thank you, too, for your patience when real life got in the way of this fic more times than I care to count. Your reviews have been most encouraging. :) _**

**_For the music geeks among you, or for anyone who is remotely curious about some of the inspiration for this story, here is a list of the songs which directly and indirectly inspired each chapter of the fic: _**

**Chapter 1: Rocket in the Sky **

"Rocket in the Sky" is an electronica dance song by The Benassi Brothers (and yes, I stole their name for the brothers in Chapter 3 who kidnapped the Selkies). It's the song Remus and Tonks twirled to in the dance club the night they met.

_Hey boy / Hey boy / You came over to me and said, "Tell me / If you're alone tonight __can I be by your side?" / Hey baby, ain't we having fun tonight/ Little rocket in the sky / Little rocket in the sky _

**Chapter 2: Lion's Mane **

This folk song is by Iron and Wine, and it's the song to which Sirius performed his yoga-like exercises the morning after the club, while Tonks and Remus made the pancakes. The title was the inspiration for the story about Tonks' morphing a lion's mane onto herself as a child. And I always think of Canon!R/T when I listen to the lyrics:

_And love is the scene I render when you catch me wide awake / And love's a dream you enter though I shake and shake and shake you_

**Chapter 3: Bug Powder Dust **

This electronica rap song is by Bomb the Bass, and the version I have is the Kruder and Dorfmeister one. It's the song Remus spies Tonks dancing to when he Floos to her Dublin flat. The title inspired their "Bugger-All" pest control disguise for retrieving the Selkie skins from Great Aunt Mabel's attic. The lyrics also made me think of Remus and Tonks trying in vain to keep their mutual attraction "under cover."

_Bug powder dust and mugwump jism / And the wild boys runnin' 'round Interzone trippin' / Letter to control about the Big Brother / Try like hard to not blow my cover _

**Chapter 4: Pink Moon **

This folk song is by Nick Drake. It's the song Remus and Tonks are listening to on the Wireless after he walks her home and she confesses that she knows he's a werewolf. This song could be a Remus/Tonks anthem!

_I saw it written and I saw it say / Pink moon is on its way / None of you stand so tall / Pink moon gonna get you all / It's a pink moon, yeah, a pink moon / Pink, pink, pink, pink … pink moon _

**Chapter 5: The Merry Harriers **

This Irish tune is traditional, and I like the version performed by my favorite Irish band, Altan. It's the tune that's playing on the Wireless when Remus teaches Tonks how to contra dance (the same night Tonks tells Remus she knows he's a werewolf).

_(No lyrics because it's instrumental!) _

**Chapter 6: The Speed of Gravity **

_And it's faster, love, than you and me / Faster than the speed of gravity_

That's a line from a Neko Case song called "Widow's Toast," and I used it as the title for this chapter because I wanted this to be the chapter in which Remus falls in love with Tonks – the moment when he sees her smiling through her tears as she waves goodbye to the Selkie. That visual image of Tonks, and of Remus falling for her at that precise moment, burst into my head long ago … and actually inspired this entire fic.

However, the music Remus hears coming from the nearby beach house when the Selkies return to the sea, and when he finally kisses Tonks, is actually a song called "À Chloris" by Reynaldo Hahn (I didn't want to use that title or any of the lyrics as a chapter title). I love the version sung by the fabulous Susan Graham; it's simple, quiet, and romantic. Plus there's so much in this fic about Tonks' eyes that I thought these lines seemed appropriate:

_Tout ce qu'on dit de l'ambroisie / Ne touche point ma fantaisie / Au prix des grâces de tes yeux_

_Translation of the French:__Say what you will about ambrosia / It can hardly compare to the magic / Of your eyes bestowing their gaze on me _

**Chapter 7: At Last **

This was recorded by the incomparable Etta James. It's a song that many people have used as the first bride-and-groom dance for a wedding, and it seemed appropriate for the beginning of a deepening of Remus' and Tonks' relationship. Besides, I couldn't resist letting them have one more dance in this fic. The full lyrics are above in Chapter 7.

**_

* * *

_****_... Thanks again, everyone, for reading! As a final review bribe, I offer a slow dance with Remus Lupin in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place. Paper sand is optional, paper stars and moonlight are recommended. _**

**_Bratanimus _**


End file.
